Amateur fighter Shasta McMurry is coming off a 36 second submission, and is looking to make her mark in the 105 division.
We talk to McMurry about her rising career, training in Arizona, and learning inside the cage.
Barone
Smith
Ashlee Evans-Smith and Anna Barone will be duking it out in the semi-finals of the CFA featherweight tournament May 24 in Miami, FL, which will air on AXS TV. The other semi-final will be between Fallon Fox and Allanna Jones.
Barone is replacing Peggy Morgan in the semi-final, after Morgan dropped out. Unconfirmed reports is that Morgan has made in on the cast of the “Ultimate Fighter”.
Barone (2-3) is coming off a TKO loss to veteran fighter Kaitlin Young this past January. She had KOed both of her opponents in her wins.
Smith (1-0) avenged her amateur loss to Tori Adams in her quarterfinal match with an unanimous decision victory this past March. She went 5-4 as an amateur including a win over InvictaFC fighter Jessamyn Duke.
The bout will air as part of the main card at CFA 11, with Fox versus Jones set as the co-main event.
Plettenberg
Robb
Laura Sanko has had to drop out of InvictaFC 6 for a happy reason.
Sanko announced she was pregnant a few weeks back and will most likely be out of action for the coming year. She was set to face Livia von Plettenberg, but now Cassie Robb will take her place.
Robb (0-1) lost her pro debut at InvictaFC 4 this past January to Sanko via a second round rear naked choke. Robb went 3-2-1 in her amateur career, with all her wins by submission.
Plettenberg (1-1) is coming off a unanimous decision loss to Joanne Calderwood at InvictaFC 4 as a late replacement. She got a first round TKO in her pro debut last year. She has been splitting her training time between her native Austria and Portland, Oregon’s Team Quest.
InvictaFC 6 will take place July 13th at the Amerista Casino in Kansas City, MO. The event is expected to be streamed on UStream.tv.
Gadleha (White) Remains Undefeated
Strawweight Brazilian Claudia Gadelha took her record to 9-0 this past weekend getting the unanimous decision win over Herica Tiburcio at Max Fights in Brazil. Gadelha will face #7 ranked Joanne Calderwood at InvictaFC 6 July 13 in Kansas City, MO. The winner will be the next in line for the promotion’s strawweight title.
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Also in Brazil, Kalindra Faria (9-3) got her first submission victory of her career, as she armbared Dayse Nascimento to a second round win at Detonic Fights 2. Faria is set to return June 1 at ECB MMA in Brazil.
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Amy Cadwell got her first pro win in a hard fought battle with Cheryl Chan at Cage Warriors Combat in Kingston, WA. She would take the split decision victory.
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In a pair of pro bouts in Australia, Shauna Carew (2-1) defeat Nusreen Ispahany by unanimous decision at Eternal MMA, and Lana Kate defeated Amy Adam by TKO round 3 at AFC 5.
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Daizy Singh gets her second submission win at Super Fight League in India. She defeated pro debuter Ola Ahemn via a modified guillotine choke in round 2.
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In semi-pro action in Great Britain, Kerry Hughes defeated Grace Anderson by TKO round 3 to win the BCMMA 135 title. Hughes has donated her winnings to Saint Francis Hospice.
In other action on the card, Kerry Maserati defeated Liana Tunmer Bogdanov by unanimous decision.
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In this week’s amateur MMA bouts:
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Courtesy FightNews.com
Holly Holm ended her boxing career with a dominant unanimous decision victory over Mary McGee in Albuquerque, NM. Holm won all 10 rounds according to all three judges to retain her IBA and WBF light welterweight titles. Holm will dedicate her training to MMA full time and is looking forward to working her way up the bantamweight division.
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Ava Knight successfully defended her IBF flyweight title over Linda Soto in with a unanimous decision win in Toluca, México. It marks Knight’s sixth straight win and improves her record to 12-1-3.
In an undercard bout, Brenda Olvera and Rocio Castillo fight to a draw.
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In Buenos Aires, Argentina, Marcela Eliana Acuna defeated Edith Soledad Matthysse by unanimous decision to win the vacant IBF Inter-Continental super bantamweight title.
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In other boxing action:
Sakai
Catron
InvictaFC vet Kathina Catron will hope to get back on the winning track as she faces Japanese fighter Sumie Sakai at C3 Fights June 6 in Newkirk, OK.
Catron (2-2) is coming off back to back submission losses to Jordan Gaza and Rose Namajunas. She won her first two fights as a pro via submission and went undefeated as an amateur.
Sakai (2-4) is looking to snap a three fight win streak. She returned earlier this year after a three and a half year absence, losing via third round TKO to Jamie Lowe.
Courtesy Ester Lin
Jessamyn Duke can now state she is still undefeated.
The Missouri State Athletic Commission has changed her loss to a “No-contest” after a controversial knee landed on her during her match with Miriam Nakamoto at April’s InvictaFC event in Kansas City. Originally a KO loss for Duke, a late knee by Nakamoto to Duke while she was a grounded opponent sparked some controversy as the ref was late to call it. Many thought that Nakamoto had incapacitated her from the first knee and that the second knee was irrelevant.
Duke’s new record is now 2-0 with 1 no contest.
The Stephanie Eggink versus Angela Magana strawweight title match is back on for XFC 25 on September 6th in Albuquerque. The match was announced by the promotion today. The match was supposed to happen at XFC 23 this past, but an unfortunate car accident injured Magana and she had to drop out of the fight.
Eggink (3-1) would eventually face a tough Brianna VanBuren on that XFC 23 event, getting the unanimous decision win.
Magana (11-5) is coming in with a unanimous decision loss to the #2 Unified ranked flyweight Jessica Eye. Magana will be dropping to 115.
XFC 25 will air on AXS TV Sept. 6.
Courtesy Sherdog
Coming off two wins in 2013, Brazil’s Jéssica Andrade is planning on taking four more fights throughout the summer and fall of this year according to an article on MMARising.com.
Andrade (9-2) got two submission wins in 2013, including a second round guillotine choke over Milana Dudieva in Russia. Her last loss was to #5 Unified ranked flyweight Jennifer Maia in December of last year.
Her next bout will be against Kalindra Faria at June 15 at Real Fight 9 in Sao Paulo, Brazil. Faria is coming off a second round armbar win this past weekend.
On July 7, Anrade will face Ann Maria at Web Fight Combat in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. Maria (3-4) is coming off a submission win earlier this month.
She is set to fight in Peru July 10 against a yet to be announced opponent.
Last but not least on September 14 she will fight Carina Damm at Golden Fighters 6 in Santa Catarina, Brazil. Damm (17-8) is coming off losses to Munah Holland and Tonya Evinger. Damm i set to face Jessica Eye on June 1 at NAAFS in Clevlenad, OH.
We’ll let you know of any of these events will be streamed.
Judo brown belt Hillary Van Ornum is undefeated and is looking for some gold at Rumble at the Roseland in Portland, OR.
We will talk to her about training at Impact BJJ, and the development of the upper weight classes.
English pro prospect Stacy Hayes is wanting to show she is one of the best up and comers in the featherweight division, and will face the world to do it.
Hayes (0-1; 1 NC) has had a pretty rocky start as a pro, losing her debut to Lisa McCallam in 2011.
Hayes will fight July 13th for Ultimate Warriors Challenge MMA in her native England against Italy’s top prospect Annalisa Bucci. Bucci (3-2) is coming off back to back finishes getting both a submission and TKO.
Two weeks later on July 28, Hayes will face Charmaine Tweet for the Eiko MMA featherweight title in England. Tweet (3-3) is coming back to back first submission wins. Tweet will be fighting June 1 against Amanda Bell in Canada before her match with Hayes.
Amateur wrestling will soon be getting a showmanship makeover.
According to an article on MMAJunkie.com, UFC president Dana White and Bellator’s Bjorn Rebney met with former world wrestling champion Bill Scherr, who is the chairman of the Committee for the Preservation of Olympic Wrestling this past week. Both the UFC and Bellator have been throwing public support behind the “Save Olympic Wrestling” campaign, offering strategic partnerships and getting the word out on their programming.
Several committee members feel that a makeover of some aspects of the sport will make it more appealing to fans; like their MMA counterparts. The President of FILA wrestling, Nenad Lalovic, stated that something needs to be done to make the sport be more marketable.
Ideas being thrown around include public weigh-ins; face-offs; music and lighting for entrances for wrestlers; and replacing the traditional singlets with shorts (this will actually be decided next year).
The FILA committee is expected to make changes this weekend in a meeting in Moscow. One of the expected changes is that women will be getting two more weight classes. It is expected that both weight classes will fall in between 50-74 kg. Greco-Roman and Freestyle men’s wrestling will be giving up a weight class to compensate.
With the growing popularity of women’s amateur wrestling, especially in the U.S., it is no surprise that the FILA committee has decided to expand the division.
We will have more info next week on what exact changes will be implemented.
In a press release by her management company, MMA University, Brazilian flyweight prospect Ericka Almeida has signed a multi-fight deal with InvictaFC. She joins fellow South Americans Vanessa Porto, Juliana Lima, and Duda Yankovich to the roster, all who are signed with MMAU management.
Almeida (5-0) has finished all of her opponents in the first round, with four submissions to her credit.
She will most likely debut at InvictaFC 7 this fall.
Miscellaneous News
This week’s “Women’s Fight Night” show is up and features news from the past week and an interview with Heraea Marketing’s Gigi Rock. We give you some insights on how marketing and the media need to change in order to make women’s sports popular.
If you are a fighter and want some free marketing help, you can sign up for free on their website HeraeaMarketing.com. We highly recommend it.
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Gonzales and Nakai
Japanese fighter Rin Nakai has some good insight in an article she did for Punch Drunk Gamer. She talks about the reasons she feels the women’s divisions participation are declining in Japan. Middle Easy has the statement posted here.
Nakai will be facing will be back in action this weekend at Pancrase in Toyko as she will take on King of the Cage vet Brenda Gonzales.
Pancrase’s Bantamweight champ Nakai (13-0-1) has yet to taste defeat, avenging her only draw last December to Danielle West, getting a decision win. Nakai hasn’t fought outside of Japan, with Gonzales being only her second Western opponent. She won’t be defending her title in the match.
King of the Cage champ Gonzales (4-0) has finished three of her four opponents via TKO. This will be her first trip overseas, and her first outside of KOTC.
Also on the card, #9 Unified ranked strawweight Emi Fujino will take on 2-0 American Amber Brown.
The fight will stream live on UStream for $10 on early Sunday morning at 1 a.m. pacific/4 a.m. esatern.
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Yamaguchi
Mei Yamaguchi will take on Seo Ye Jung at JEWELS 24th ring May 25th in Tokyo. #8 ranked strawweight Yamaguchi (10-5-1) is coming off a loss to #2 ranked strawweight Megumi Fujii this past December.
Jung is coming off a pro debut loss to #10 ranked strawweight Mizuki Inoue in March.
The main event will be Naho Sugiyama defending her 106 pound title against Seo Hee Ham. It is expected that the rest of the JEWELS card will be revealed next week.
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InvictaFC strawweight champ Carla Esparza was featured in LA Weekly, call her one of their “Fascinating Angelenos of 2013″. You can read it here.
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Amateur Brittany Dugas current Cage Honor flyweight champion, is set to fight on June 1 in Scott City, MO against CSC champ Jessica Laubacker in a title for title match. Dugas is currently undefeated and taking this fight two weeks ahead of her bout with Susie Wyatt at ShamrockFC in St. Louis.
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Amateur strawweight Lauren Foley will be back in action June 21 against Christine Daniels at WXC in Southgate, MI. It will be for the promotion’s 115 title.
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For those interested, the all female “Gladiatrix Rising” amateur card that was set for this weekend has been postponed for this fall.
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This weekend on the Wombat Sports podcast, we will talk with CFA tournament semi-finalist Ashlee Evans-Smith ahead of her match with late replacement Anna Barone. You can listen live here at 1 p.m. pacific/4 p.m. eastern Sunday.
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Rumors
In an interview with MMA Fighting this week, Showtime Sports executive Stephen Espinoza stated he wants MMA back on the network. With the success of Strikeforce, especially in the women’s divisions, Showtime is prime to get another promotion in, and one of the front runners is InvictaFC. Should be noted that Espinoza expressed that they haven’t talk to the promotion yet, and InvictaFC president Shannon Knapp expressed to us she still wants some creative control over the events.
The partnership seems like a natural fit, but only time will tell if an offer will be made.
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In an interview with a Finnish website, #6 Unified ranked strawweight Katja Kankaanpää (8-0-1) stated will be fighting at InvictaFC 7 in the fall. We are also speculating undefeated flyweight Ericka Almeida will also be on the card.
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Upcoming Matches
In amateur action, Oregon’s FCFF will put their ammy flyweight champ against their ammy strawweight champ as Katie Howard will take on Emily Corso at Rumble at the Roseland 71 May 18. Corso’s 125 belt will be on the line.
Strawweight champ Howard (3-2) is coming off a loss to 125er Robin Woods this past March. Howard won the 115 belt this past January with a decision win over Kyra Batara.
Corso (6-0) is coming off a rear naked choke submission win over Amy Cadwell this past October.
In another title match, Hillary VanOrnum will take on Myndi Stalnaker for the vacant light heavyweight title.
Leanne Foster will take on Whitney McMillin in a third female bout.
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Gladney & Vincent
In boxing, undefeated Shelly Vincent looks to claim her first title as she takes on Angel Gladney for the vacant WIBA bantamweight title in Lincoln, Rhode Island Friday night. Vincent (8-0) has taken unanimous decsion in all of her fights. Gladney (8-7) is coming off a split decision win and is also looking for her first title.
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Katy Wilson Castillo will be defending her IBF super bantamweight title for the second time as she takes on Zenny Sotomayor in Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic Saturday. Castillo won the title last August with a unanimous decsion win over Ada Velez. She recently defeated Grecia Nova this past December in a non-title match. Sitimayor is coming off a TKO loss this past November.
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WBC Flyweight title holder Renata Szebeledi will defend her title for the first time against Shindo Go in Wakayama, Japan. Szebeldi (19-9) won the title defeating Simona Galassi this past October. Go (11-2) is looking to regain the belt after losing it to Mariana Juarez. Go would win her last bout with Gabriela Gonzalez by decision.
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In pro MMA bouts:
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In ammy MMA bouts
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In other boxing action
Courtesy Pancrase
Japan’s Rin Nakai got her 14th win of her career as she was able to submit American Brenda Gonzales at Pancrase MMA Sunday.
Nakai (now 14-0-1) was tentative early on before trying to get Gonzales’s back standing. After working to get a wastelock, Nakai suplexed Gonzales, and worked the back to sink in the rear naked choke for the tap at 4:47 of round 1. Gonzales had injured her arm after being suplexed, but no word on how bad.
In the other female bout on the card, #9 Unified ranked strawweight Emi Fujino defeated Amber Brown by submission (neck crank) 4:18 round 2.
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On other pro MMA bouts:
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VanOrnum
In the amateur ranks, Emily Corso successfully defended her 125 title over Katie Howard in a five round war at the “Rumble at the Roseland” in Portland, Oregon. Corso would pull off the armbar submission at 1:29 of round 5.
In the other title match on the card, Hillary VanOrnum became the frist ever FCFF female light heayweight champion as she defeated Myndi Stalnaker by TKO at 1:57 of round 1.
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The University of MMA returned Sunday at the Nokia Theater in Hollywood with two female amateur female bout. Brooksie Bayard got her third win by defeating Colbey Northcutt by unanimous decision. Also on the card, Laura Salazar got her third win after defeating Stefani Pogue by unanimous decision.
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In other amateur MMA action:
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Vincent
Boxing’s Shelly Vincent gain her first pro belt Friday night in Providence, Rhodes Island with a decisive decision victory over Angel Gladney. The new WIBA bantamweight title is still undefeated with nine wins to her credit.
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Courtesy FightNews.com
Shindo Go successfully regained her WBC flyweight title wit a dominant unanimous decision victory over Renata Szebeledi in Go’s hometown of Wakayama, Japan. Go lost the title last year to Mariana Juarez.
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In Tlalnepantla, México, Nancy Franco got her first adult pro title by defeating Ana Arrazola in a remattch of their 2010 battle. Having won their first encounter by split decision, Franco would take the unanimous decision to win the vacant IBF female minimumweight title. Franco was the WBC Youth minimumweight champion and Mexican minimumweight champion.
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In other boxing action:
Maroulis vs. Kisel Courtesy Aimee Berg/Team USA
FILA made May “International Wrestling Month” and two big events happen this past week on both ends of the United States.
Last Wednesday, “Rumble on the Rails” was held at New York City’s Grand Central Station. Wrestlers from Iran, Russia, and the USA grappled in front of fans and dignitaries from across the planet. In the only female bout, Helen Maroulis of Team USA pinned Irina Kisel of Russia.
This past Sunday, the action turned to the Los Angeles Memorial Sports Arena for the United for Wrestling Event. Wrestlers from Russia, Canada, and the United States competed in the one day event with five female freestyle grappling matches. Among them the #2 ranked 63 kg wrestler Elena Pirozhkova for Team USA who gained a decision win over Danielle Lappage of Canada.
“This sport means a lot,” Pirozhkova stated in an article for TheMat.com. “It’s really exciting to be a part of it. It means a lot to all of the wrestling countries. The environment here is amazing. I’m just blessed to be a part of it. There’s no way I’d miss out on this.”
“Wrestling is the fastest growing sport for women in the country and this event was really important. If you promote women’s wrestling for the Olympics, you just have that many more competitors who are able to wrestle in the Olympics.”
You can watch post match interviews below:
Elena Pirozhkova (Watch here)
Brittney Roberts (Watch Here)
Here is the results from Sunday.
Youth Division
After previously announcing #3 Unified ranked Naho Sugiyama versus Seo Hee Ham for the 106 pound title last month and #8 ranked Mei Yamaguchi faces Seo Ye Jung last week, JEWELS MMA Japan released it’s full card for their 24th outing, which will take place this weekend in Tokyo.
Added to the MMA portion of the card is Mika Nagano taking on Takumi Umehara and ex-patriot Jade Marie Anderson taking on Yurika Nakakura.
Nagano (12-8) is looking for her third straight win, as she got the decision win over Emi Tomimatsu this past March. With a victory, Nagano solidifies her spot for a title shot against 114 pound champ Ayaka Haasaki.
Umehara (1-0) made her pro debut this past March with a decision win over Yasuko Mogi. An upset would put her in the title picture.
Anderson (2-0) has back to back victories over journeywoman fighter Megumi Yabushita, getting a decsion win in their first encounter and an armbar submission in the second. Anderson trains out of Korea, and is looking for another win to climb the featherweight ladder.
Nakakura (1-1) is coming off a submission victory over Rie Fukui and looks to make a name for herself in the 145 weight class.
The card will also have a kickboxing match between Satomi Takano and Kaoru Chatani, plus four grappling bouts.
Here is the entire card:
MMA bouts
Kickboxing
Grappling
We at Wombat Sports were hesitant in doing an article about the current allegations about MMA manger Brett Atchley because we are interested in hearing both sides of the story and gather more information so we can do a balanced piece. Atchley did put out his side of the story on MMAJunkie.com Tuesday, and denies any wrong doing; stating a conspiracy theory against him via several individuals in the business. We heard about a dozen fighters come forward with their stories, several more than MMA Junkie had on record. With that in mind, let’s get to a timeline of events of the current allegations.
In November of last year, InvictaFC president Shannon Knapp released a statement (this was the second time she had put out a statement like this):
“If you want a contract with Invicta FC keep winning, fighting hard and you will get that contract! The Manager works for you! It is your talent and ability alone that will get you a contract with Invicta FC. If you feel that you are being bullied or a Manager is making any of these claims in trying to sign you to their Management Company contracts please notify me personally.”
If this sounds familiar, she released a similar statement for a third time last week. She didn’t name names, but word started to spread.
July 2012
The first statement from Knapp was most likely caused by an incident that happened in July. Tara LaRosa started to receive text messages from Atchley threatening that she would be “blackballed from InvictaFC” since she was training with her then coach Ivan Salaverry. Atchley is claiming the texts were altered by Salaverry, a long time rival.
This came to a head at InvictaFC 3 this past October when an incident happened between LaRosa and Atchley in an elevator, with Salaverry in toe. According to LaRosa in the MMA Junkie article, Atchley made a comment about how few sponsors were on her outfit and grabbed her wrist and sweatshirt. LaRosa, who was cutting weight at the time, wasn’t prepared to do anything. Salavarry stated that there wasn’t anything illegal that actually happened, but it was unprofessional what he did. Since then, LaRosa has tried to keep her distance. You can read more on the incident and another one that occurred several days later on Promoting Women’s MMA.
October 2012
Ais “The Bash” Daly mentioned to us that Atchley was trying to hug her at the InvictaFC 3 after party and was being obnoxious and rude towards her.
Early 2013
According to Atchley himself, the reason why these “rumors” are flying around is a conspiracy against him due to a rumor of him being sexually inappropriate towards former client Paige Van Zant, who left his management company earlier this year. Van Zant and her new management didn’t want to comment.
April
Fast forward to InvictaFC 5 this past April. The first incident to appear was from Bec Hyatt, who stated she had a run in with Atchley and his fighter Fallon Fox. The back stage incident was caught on camera, but it will not be released. What exactly happened there is still a mystery.
Also at the event, Atchley was aggressively hitting on amateur fighter Alyssa Vasquez. These came in forms of text messages and an incident that happened during the event at a bar at the Ameristar Casino. According to Vasquez, who was on the ProWMMA podcast Monday, Atchley was bragging about how “he was blocking Alexis Davis from entering the UFC” after she left his management company. He continued to state his “power” to block people, even from InvictaFC, which of course he could not.
Atchley, who had a fighter fighting at the time of the incident, made an advance at Vasquez, kissing her on the neck. Vasquez left to watch the rest of the card, trying to avoid Atchley for the rest of the night.
Long time client Jessamyn Duke left shortly after InvictaFC 5, because of several disagreements about her career, and an incident in which Atchley pushed her mother (Atchley denies this). Duke claims that Atchley wasn’t going to pursue changing her loss to Miriam Nakamoto at the event to a no-contest, and instructed her not to try out for the Ultimate Fighter. In the latter, he showed her Alexis Davis’s contract with the UFC, which should have been privileged information. Atchley admitted to show Duke the contract, but it was for her own good and that the UFC would stiff her. Duke left the his management shortly after.
Duke also had nothing in writing in terms of sponsorship money, stating Atchley would be getting her a $10,000 deal with a watch maker. Atchley denies this.
May
Several clients decided not to resign with Atchley after word got out about certain instances.
After Knapp released the third statement last week, people started to come forward with stories about Atchley’s behavior towards them. Sarah Maloy being one of the latest to do so in an interview with Jason Adams. Kim Couture stated on her twitter “This has happened to me and sooo many with this guy! Stand up girls!”
Fighters such as Jess Philippus, and Sarah Goodlaxson expressed they had started to spread the word about Atchely’s actions for the past few months.
On Wednesday, Knapp issued another statement:
“I assure you I won’t take this lying down! We will make the necessary changes internally putting policies/procedures in place to ensure we do our best to eliminate these types of situations/predators in the future and to ensure that ALL athletes know we are here for them.We will NOT tolerate these types of behaviors! I said it a few days ago and will repeat it LOUD and CLEAR… YOU DON’T MESS WITH MY ATHLETES! I will handle this from here!”
“I applaud the athletes that have publicly come forward and I thank them for their bravery. Without their courage these things would have continued to happen and could have possibly resulted in someone really getting hurt.”
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It does seems that his in-office business is somewhat up to par, with gaining solid sponsorship for fighters under his company. It is his actions outside the office that are in question. Some of the instances that Atchley was drinking, which seems to be a major cause of his actions. This isn’t an excuse though. It is important for any manager to conduct himself professionally at all times when he is around fighters, his own or otherwise. Especially if those fighters are women.
According to Addison Management and Sports Media website, there are 20 fighters currently signed but it is hard to say who is still with him after the incidents these past few months. Several maybe waiting the end of their contracts to leave. He states that although he lost four clients within the last month, the rest can vouch for his professionalism.
What we can state is that his two youngest clients, Courtney Cordoza and Madison Peavler, have left the Addison Management earlier this month. Michelle Ould, Katalina Malungahu, and Cassie Rodish, although they are listed, also left the company after the incidents came to light this week. Rodish stated that although Atchley was always professional with her, she decided not to resign with him as her contract expired on May 21.
One of the major effects of the current controversy is that VII A.D. Jewelry has decided to not sponsor MMA fighters anymore. The company sponsored many of Addison Management fighters. We are sadden, however, for them to leave the WMMA community all together. We can only hope they can reconsider sponsoring fighters in the future under different circumstances.
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An event like this shows a huge problem in the women’s divisions when it comes to communication over managers. The hope is that these allegations will make some appropriate changes in reporting such incidents, and that word gets out about managers being unprofessional around their clients, and other fighters. WMMA matchmaker Sam Wilson and InvictaFC presdient Shannon Knapp are currently taking steps to make sure there is a system in place for the future.
There will be more fallout in the weeks and months to come, but we can only hope we can get past these incidents and get back to some normalcy.
A calm but upset InvictaFC president Shannon Knapp was on “In the Cage with Bards” Wednesday to talk about the current professional and sexual allegations against manager Brett Atchley that came to light this week. Knapp was able to give us a timeline of her interactions with Atchley over the past year in term of their business dealings.
Last summer, Knapp received phone messages from Atchley wanting her to ban Ivan Salaverry’s fighters from InvictaFC and Strikeforce. (One of Salaverry’s fighters at the time was Tara LaRosa.) Knapp talked to Strikeforce officials about the messages, and warned Atchley to stop threatening to blackball fighters. The first of three statements went up on Knapp’s facebook that stated “fighters can’t be blackballed from InvictaFC by a manager”.
In November, Knapp received some e-mails forwarded to her from a prospective client of Atchley’s. In the e-mail, Atchley stated that he got on the phone with Knapp and InvictaFC co-owner Janet Martin and that they wouldn’t work with the fighter in question’s current management. The second statement went up. Atchley soon texted Knapp asking if he was good. Knapp stated “If you aren’t doing anything wrong you shouldn’t need to worry.”
In late 2012 and early 2013, some allegations of sexual misconduct were going around, but Knapp could not do anything unless someone could step forward and be on record. Most of the information was either second hand or the person in question wanted to be discreet about it. Her hands were tied legally, and couldn’t ban anyone based on speculation.
In the past few weeks, more fighters complained about the business intimidation practices of Atchley, prompting the third statement. That was when the floodgates opened. Knapp admitted that she didn’t know the sexual allegations were as bad as they were. She was a bit emotional writing a statement Wednesday about the situation; admitting she had to step away after typing a few words to make sure she was writing it as professionally as she could.
Many could blame this on Knapp, but the fact is she couldn’t do anything until people were willing to come forward to tell their stories. Her hope was the previous three statements would get fighters to know that she was there for the fighters and if any problems arose that she would be available anytime day or night.
With the fallout, InvictaFC will be doing their due diligence in order to find a way for fighters to come forward if things like this happen again. Knapp suggested a neutral party that would be able to be a go-between if there were management issues. If there is a silver lining in all of this, it’s the fact that fighters can feel comfortable going to Knapp about advice or problems they have.
“I am here for the fighters, male of female. I want to do what’s best for the sport,” is what Knapp expressed in her interview.
We can tell you that there have been a lot of other people outside of InvictaFC who have been helping out and finding solutions for fighters, especially those who aren’t as seasoned in seeking management help.
On a personal note, I feel that we show our greatest strength in crisis, and the WMMA community as a whole has shown the power to overcome anything. We can learn from the experience, adapt, and make sure there are tools in place that should make sure this never happens again.
Having made pro debut at the CFA tournament quarterfinals with a decision win, Ashlee Evans-Smith is hoping to work her way to the finals as she takes on late replacement Anne Barone May 24 in Miami, FL. It will air on AXS TV.
We will talk to Smith about avenging her loss to Tori Adams, her training, and her future plans.
Smith
Miscellaneous News
Ashlee Evans-Smith has automatically advanced in the CFA featherweight tournament as her opponent Anna Barone forfeited by being overweight. Barone didn’t officially hit the scales and we may not know how far she was over the 145 pound weight limit.
Smith will now face the winner of Fallon Fox versus Allanna Jones in the tournament finals. The two square off Friday night at the CFA card in Miami, FL with will be live on AXS-TV. Transgender fighter Fox is coming off a TKO win in her quarterfinal bout against Erica Newsome, while Jones is coming off a decision win over Kelsey De Santis. Both made weight with Fox at 144 pounds, while Jones came in a 145 even.
Smith told us on the Wombat Sports podcast that she would face Fox in the finals if she won. She also predicted that Jones would upset Fox.
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After they announced the title match for their strawweight title match with Stephanie Eggink versus Angela Magana for their September 6 card in Albuquerque, the XFC announced they have also rescheduled Angelica Chavez taking on Stephanie Skinner as a feature bout on the card.
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Tuff-n-uff has announced they are planning an eight woman ammy 145 tournament for the fall. The tournament will begin Sept. 20th, with the semi-finals on Oct. 11th, and the finals on Nov. 29th. Their previous featherweight tournament several years ago featured now-UFC champion Ronda Rousey, CFA tournament finalist Ashlee Evans-Smith, and top amateur fighter Taylor Stratford.
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Awakening female fighting has started to post feature videos of several of Britain’s best talent. Among them include Ashley Nichols, Kate Jackson, and Annabelle Shoob. They have also posted videos of their last month’s kickboxing event. You can watch the videos here.
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FILA has announced their amateur women’s wrestling rankings this week. You can checkout the list at TheMat.com.
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Philippus
This Sunday on the Wombat Sports podcast, we will talk to InvictaFC fighter and former college wrestler Jess Philippus about the current changes in the FILA amateur wrestling rules, the future of women in the sport, and the current fallout of “Atchley Gate”. You can listen here at 1 p.m. pacific/4 p.m. eastern.
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Rumors
In the wake of what we are now calling “The Atchley Gate” scandal, a lot of people have been taking action.
InvictaFC stated Thursday they plan to launch the “Fighting for a Living” series on their website. It will feature information, advice, tips and resources on a variety of topics for Female Fighters written by Invicta FC Staff and respected, knowledgeable professionals in the industry.
We will have a press release in the next few weeks about another resource fighters will get in terms of legal help.
Several of the fighters that left Addison Management are starting to get tons of offers from other managers in the business. We at Wombat Sports will be doing a series of articles on the next few weeks with some of the more respected managers in the sport to help restore some faith in their profession.
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Scheduled Fights
Japan’s #1 all female MMA promotion JEWELS is back this weekend in Tokyo.
In the main event #3 Unified ranked atomweight Naho Sugiyama will defend her 106 pound title against Seo Hee Ham. Also on the card, #8 ranked strawweight Mei Yamaguchi takes on Korea’s Seo Ye Jung. American ex-patriot Jade Marie Anderson will also be in action taking on Yurika Nakakura. Mika Nagano versus Takumi Umehara rounds out the MMA matches.
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A four woman tournament is set for the No Compromises 2 card in Hamburg, Germany. In the semi-finals, Alexandra Buch faces Jannie Schmits, while Jessy Schwarz takes on Anne Merkt. The winners will face each other later in the evening.
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Jocelyn Lybarger looks for her second profession win as she takes on Jessica Kennett at King of the Cage in Scotsdale, AZ. Lybarger debuted last year with a decision win over Cheryl Chan. Kennett lost in her pro debut last year.
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BRACE MMA in Brisbane, Australia will see Kerry Barrett take on Arlene Blencowe. Barrett won her pro debut at the BRACE all female card last year, while Blencrowe lost her pro debut earlier this year.
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Disorderly Conduct MMA has three bouts Friday in Omaha, NE. In a pro bout, Jessica Halverson hopes to get back on the winning track as she takes on Kate Bloomfield. Halverson (3-2) is coming off a TKO loss to Tamminka Brents, while Bloomfield (1-2) is coming off her first pro win – a submission over Elshaddai Cleffman.
In amateur action, Raina Mendez takes on Stephanie Watts, and Brenda Rodriguez faces Tera Carper.
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Rounding out the pro bouts, Herica Tiburcio, coming off a loss only two weeks ago, will take on Aline Sattelmayer at Start MMA 1 – Sao Pauli, Brazil.
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In Amateur MMA action:
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In Amsterdam, Holland, Push it to the Limit kickboxing will have two female bouts with Joy de Bruin taking on Alesha Smol and Tiffany van Welie facing Ibitsem Atea.
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In White Plains, NY, the undefeated boxer Ronica Jeffrey looks for another title as she takes on Olivia Gerula for the interim IWBF International Women’s Boxing Federation featherweight title. Jeffery (12-0) currently is the NABF and WBC silver featherweight champion. Gerula (13-13-2) is hoping to break a three fight losing streak. The match will stream on GFL.tv for $10.
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In other boxing action:
