Invicta Fighting Championships

After more than a year in the making,[7] the promotion held its first event, Invicta FC 1 on April 28, 2012 (2012-04-28).[9] It was headlined by a rematch between former Strikeforce women's bantamweight champion Marloes Coenen and French fighter Romy Ruyssen.[9] The event also marked the MMA debut of 2008 Summer Olympics women's freestyle wrestling medalist Randi Miller.[10] The event was available as a free video stream at the Invicta Fighting Championships webpage.[11] After the event, fight of the night went to Kaitlin Young and Leslie Smith who fought to a draw whilst submission of the night was awarded to Sarah Schneider. Liz Carmouche and Jessica Penne both received social media bonuses.[12]

On June 9, it was announced that Invicta has formed a strategic partnership with Japanese promotion JEWELS to cross-promote the world's top female fighters on their respective fight cards in the United States and Japan.[13]

Invicta then held its second event (Invicta FC 2: Baszler vs. McMann) on July 28, 2012. Like the first event, it was made available as a free stream on the promotion's official website. The event was headlined by 2004 Summer Olympics women's freestyle wrestling silver medalist Sara McMann and Shayna Baszler.[14] Carla Esparza and Barb Honchak made their promotional debuts on this card. As part of the alliance with Japanese promotion Jewels, Jewels lightweight champion Ayaka Hamasaki was set to face undefeated Austrian fighter Jasminka Cive as part of the main event but Cive was unable to secure her visa in time and was replaced by Lacey Shuckman.[5][15]

On September 24, 2012, Invicta announced a strategic alliance with the Super Fight League, which aims to bring the best Indian female fighters to Invicta, whilst Invicta will aim to send world class female mixed martial artists to the Super Fight League.[16]

Sara McMann was originally scheduled to fight for the Invicta FC Bantamweight Championship at Invicta FC 3 but this did not occur due to an injury to McMann.

Invicta FC 3: Penne vs. Sugiyama took place on October 6, 2012. Invicta continued their partnership with Jewels as Jessica Penne faced and beat the previously undefeated Jewels 105 lb champion Naho Sugiyama for the inaugural Invicta FC Atomweight Championship.

Also at Invicta FC 3, Leslie Smith fought Kaitlin Young in a rematch from their exciting "fight of the night" Invicta FC 1 bout where they fought to a draw. This time, Smith was able to get the better of Young and defeated her by TKO in the second round.[17] Invicta FC3 also saw the promotional debut of long time Women's Bantamweight and Flyweight standout Tara LaRosa, as well as the debuts of Michelle Waterson and Cat Zingano. Fight of the night bonuses went to Michelle Waterson and Lacey Schuckman. The submission of the night bonus was split between Jessamyn Duke and Stephanie Frausto while knockout of the night went to promotional newcomer Joanne Calderwood.

On December 19, 2012, Shannon Knapp announced Invicta FC 4 would air as an online pay-per-view.

Invicta Fighting Championships held their fourth event (Invicta FC 4: Esparza vs. Hyatt) on January 5, 2013. The event was headlined by the inaugural Invicta FC Strawweight Championship bout between Carla Esparza and Bec Hyatt (in Hyatt's promotional debut). Esparza was originally scheduled to fight Ayaka Hamasaki for the title but Hamasaki pulled out of the fight due to commitments to defending her JEWELS lightweight title. Hamasaki was originally replaced by undefeated Brazilian fighter Claudia Gadelha but on December 28, Gadelha was also forced to withdraw after suffering a broken nose in training. Esparza defeated Hyatt to become the first Invicta FC Strawweight Champion. Also Alexis Davis defeated Shayna Baszler in the card's fight of the night and Rose Namajunas won knock-out of the night in her professional MMA debut.

Due to purchasing issues on the night of the event, the event was streamed for free rather than pay per view and it was announced that all buyers would be refunded.

Invicta FC 5: Penne vs. Waterson took place on April 5, 2013. The card was headlined by Jessica Penne who lost her Invicta FC Atomweight Championship to "The Karate Hottie" Michelle Waterson. The event featured a co-main event of Vanessa Porto vs. Barb Honchak with the latter being crowned as the first Invicta FC Flyweight Champion. In addition, Sarah Kaufman and "Cyborg" Cristiane Justino both won in their Invicta FC debuts. On this occasion, the online pay per view went smoothly, avoiding any issues experiences at Invicta FC 4.

During Invicta FC 5, there were no issues with the Ustream pay-per-view system as there had been in January.

Invicta FC 6: Coenen vs. Cyborg took place on 13 July 2013, featuring the crowning of Cristiane "Cyborg" Justino as the inaugural Featherweight champion and a Strawweight title eliminator match won by Claudia Gadelha over Ayaka Hamasaki (previously unbeaten JEWELS lightweight champion). The winner will face champion Carla Esparza. The card also featured wins by Jessica Penne, Lauren Taylor, Tecia Torres, Leslie Smith and Joanne Calderwood.

This event was aired on cable and satellite pay-per-view in the United States and Canada in addition to their online PPV stream, as the promotion had come to a deal with Integrated Sports Media for live viewing.[18]

In early 2014 an agreement with the UFC was announced to air all future Invicta FC events exclusively on the UFC's subscription-based digital streaming service, UFC Fight Pass, and that the entire Invicta FC fight library would be added to the "On Demand" part of UFC Fight Pass. On July 10, Invicta and the UFC held a joint conference call to announce that Invicta FC 8 would be the first event to stream live on Fight Pass. The September 6th event was to be headlined by Michelle Waterson's first title defense of her atomweight belt vs. Yasuko Tamada.[19]

On February 24, it was announced the partnership between Invicta and Combate. The deal allows the Brazilian channel the broadcast of Invicta live events as well the event library of Invicta in the South American country. The first Invicta event broadcast on Combate was Invicta FC 11: Cyborg vs. Tweet showing the Brazilian Invicta's featherweight champion Cris Cyborg versus the Canadian challenger Charmaine Tweet.[20]

136 to 145 lbs (62 to 66 kg)

No.	Name	Event	Date	Reign	Defenses
1	Cristiane Justino def. Marloes Coenen	Invicta FC 6: Coenen vs. Cyborg Kansas City, MO, USA	July 13, 2013	1351 days	1. def. Charmaine Tweet at Invicta FC 11 on Feb 27, 2015 2. def. Faith Van Duin at Invicta FC 13 on July 9, 2015 3. def. Daria Ibragimova at Invicta FC 15 on Jan 16, 2016.
-	Megan Anderson def. Charmaine Tweet for interim title	Invicta FC 21: Anderson vs. Tweet Kansas City, MO, USA	January 14, 2017	-
Justino vacated the title on March 24, 2017 to compete full time with the UFC.
2	Megan Anderson promoted to undisputed champion	Invicta FC 22: Evinger vs. Kunitskaya II Kansas City, MO, USA	March 24, 2017	88 days
Anderson vacated the title on June 20, 2017 to sign with the UFC
3	Felicia Spencer def. Pam Sorenson	Invicta FC 32: Spencer vs. Sorenson Shawnee, OK, USA	November 16, 2018	129 days
Spencer vacated the title on March 26, 2019 to sign with the UFC
4	Pam Sorenson def. Kaitlin Young	Invicta FC 36: Sorenson vs. Young Kansas City, KS, USA	August 9, 2019	315 days (incumbent)

126 to 135 lbs (57 to 61 kg)

No.	Name	Event	Date	Reign	Defenses
1	Lauren Murphy def. Miriam Nakamoto	Invicta FC 7: Honchak vs. Smith Kansas City, MO, USA	December 7, 2013	208 days
Murphy vacated title on July 3, 2014 to sign with the UFC.
2	Tonya Evinger def. Irene Aldana	Invicta FC 13: Cyborg vs. Van Duin Las Vegas, NV, USA	July 9, 2015	724 days	1. def. Colleen Schneider at Invicta FC 17 on May 7, 2016. –. No contest vs. Yana Kunitskaya at Invicta FC 20 on Nov 18, 2016. 2. def. Yana Kunitskaya at Invicta FC 22 on Mar 25, 2017
Evinger vacated title on July 3, 2017 to sign with the UFC.
3	Yana Kunitskaya def. Raquel Pa'aluhi	Invicta FC 25: Kunitskaya vs. Pa'aluhi Lemoore, CA, USA	August 31, 2017	160 days
Kunitskaya vacated title on February 7, 2018 to sign with the UFC.
4	Sarah Kaufman def. Katharina Lehner	Invicta FC 29: Kaufman vs. Lehner Kansas City, MO, USA	May 4, 2018	368 days
Kaufman vacated title on May 9, 2019 to sign with the PFL.
5	Julija Stoliarenko def. Lisa Verzosa	Invicta FC Phoenix Series 3 Kansas City, KS, USA	March 6, 2020	105 days (incumbent)

116 to 125 lbs (53 to 56 kg)

No.	Name	Event	Date	Reign	Defenses
1	Barb Honchak def. Vanessa Porto	Invicta FC 5: Penne vs. Waterson Kansas City, MO, USA	April 5, 2013	1266 days	1. def. Leslie Smith at Invicta FC 7 on Dec 7, 2013 2. def. Takayo Hashi at Invicta FC 9 on Nov 1, 2014
-	Jennifer Maia def. Vanessa Porto for interim title	Invicta FC 16: Hamasaki vs. Brown Las Vegas, NV, USA	March 11, 2016	-
Honchak was stripped of the title due to inactivity on September 22, 2016
2	Jennifer Maia promoted to undisputed champion	Invicta FC 19: Maia vs. Modafferi Kansas City, MO, USA	September 22, 2016	652 days	1. def. Roxanne Modafferi at Invicta FC 19 on Sept 23, 2016 2. def. Agnieszka Niedźwiedź at Invicta FC 26 on Dec 8, 2017
Maia vacated title on July 7, 2018 to sign with the UFC.
3	Vanessa Porto def. Pearl Gonzalez	Invicta FC 34: Porto vs. Gonzalez Kansas City, MO, USA	February 15, 2019	490 days (incumbent)

106 to 115 lbs (49 to 52 kg)

No.	Name	Event	Date	Reign	Defenses
1	Carla Esparza def. Bec Hyatt	Invicta FC 4: Esparza vs. Hyatt Kansas City, KS, USA	January 5, 2013	341 days
Esparza vacated title on December 11, 2013 to participate in The Ultimate Fighter: A Champion Will Be Crowned.[23][24]
2	Katja Kankaanpää def. Stephanie Eggink	Invicta FC 8: Waterson vs. Tamada Kansas City, MO, USA	September 6, 2014	230 days
3	Livia Renata Souza	Invicta FC 12: Kankaanpää vs. Souza Kansas City, MO, USA	April 24, 2015	380 days	1. def. DeAnna Bennett at Invicta FC 15 on Jan 16, 2016
4	Angela Hill	Invicta FC 17: Evinger vs. Schneider Costa Mesa, CA, USA	May 7, 2016	274 days	1. def. Kaline Medeiros at Invicta FC 20 on Nov 18, 2016
Hill vacated title on February 4, 2017 to return to the UFC.
5	Virna Jandiroba def. Mizuki Inoue	Invicta FC 28: Mizuki vs. Jandiroba Salt Lake City, UT, USA	March 24, 2018	379 days	1. def. Janaisa Morandin at Invicta FC 31 on Sep 1, 2018
Jandiroba vacated title on April 7, 2019 to sign with the UFC.
6	Brianna van Buren def. Kailin Curran	Phoenix Series 1 Kansas City, KS, USA	May 3, 2019	39 days
Van Buren vacated title on June 11, 2019 to sign with the UFC.
7	Kanako Murata def. Emily Ducote	Invicta FC 38: Murata vs. Ducote Kansas City, KS, USA	November 1, 2019	231 days (incumbent)

96 to 105 lbs (44 to 48 kg)

No.	Name	Event	Date	Reign	Defenses
1	Jessica Penne def. Naho Sugiyama	Invicta FC 3: Penne vs. Sugiyama Kansas City, KS, USA	October 6, 2012	181 days
2	Michelle Waterson	Invicta FC 5: Penne vs. Waterson Kansas City, MO, USA	April 5, 2013	609 days	1. def. Yasuko Tamada at Invicta FC 8 on Sept 6, 2014
3	Hérica Tibúrcio	Invicta FC 10: Waterson vs. Tiburcio Houston, Texas, USA	December 5, 2014	216 days
4	Ayaka Hamasaki	Invicta FC 13: Cyborg vs. Van Duin Las Vegas, Nevada, USA	July 9, 2015	737 days	1. def. Amber Brown at Invicta FC 16 on Mar 11, 2016 2. def. Jinh Yu Frey at Invicta FC 19 on Sept 23, 2016
Hamasaki vacated title on July 15, 2017 to focus on moving up to the strawweight division and signed with Rizin.
5	Jinh Yu Frey def. Minna Grusander	Invicta FC 30: Frey vs. Grusander Kansas City, MO, USA	July 21, 2018	564 days	1. def. Minna Grusander at Invicta FC 33 on Dec 16, 2018
Frey vacated title on February 6, 2020 after failing to make weight for a scheduled title defense.