Kansas City, Mo. — Invicta Fighting Championships is headed to Las Vegas with a championship tripleheader.
The promotion will make its first trip to Nevada on Thursday, July 9, as part of International Fight Week. The event takes place from The Chelsea at The Cosmopolitan and will stream live and exclusively on UFC Fight Pass.
Headlining the event will be a featherweight title fight between champion Cristiane “Cyborg” Justino (13-1, 1 NC) and New Zealand’s Faith Van Duin (5-1). Cyborg successfully defended her 145-pound title at Invicta FC 11, stopping Canadian Charmaine Tweet in 46 seconds. The win marked the Brazilian’s third straight finish inside the Invicta cage. Van Duin made her promotional debut at Invicta FC 12 in April and submitted Amanda Bell in the second round with a schoolyard choke.
In the night’s co-main event, a new bantamweight champion will be crowned as Tonya Evinger (15-5) locks horns with Mexico’s Irene Aldana (5-1). Evinger enters the title affair riding a six-fight winning streak, including three straight in the Invicta cage. Aldana, meanwhile, has scored back-to-back first-round stoppages over Peggy Morgan and Colleen Schneider under the Invicta banner.
Also slated for the July event is an atomweight title fight between Brazilian champion Herica Tiburcio (9-2) and Japan’s Ayaka Hamasaki (11-1). The pair were originally expected to meet at Invicta FC 9 last fall, but when that fell through, Tiburcio submitted Michelle Waterson at Invicta FC 1o to capture the 105-pound strap.
The full seven-fight card for Invicta FC 13 can be found below:
Featherweight Title: Cristiane “Cyborg” Justino (13-1, 1 NC) vs. Faith Van Duin (5-1)
Bantamweight Title: Tonya Evinger (15-5) vs. Irene Aldana (5-1)
Atomweight Title: Herica Tiburcio (9-2) vs. Ayaka Hamasaki (11-1)
Bantamweight: Pannie Kianzad (7-0) vs. Jessica-Rose Clark (5-1)
Atomweight: Amber Brown (4-1) vs. Catherine Costigan (5-0)
Strawweight: Amy Montenegro (6-1) vs. Jamie Moyle (2-0)
Featherweight: Marina Shafir (1-1) vs. Amber Leibrock (0-0)
Tickets for Invicta FC 13 will be available through Ticketmaster.
About Invicta FC:
Invicta Fighting Championships is a world championship, all-pro mixed martial arts (MMA) fight series dedicated to providing female athletes with a major platform to hone their skills on a consistent basis. Founded in 2012 by longtime MMA executive Shannon Knapp, Invicta is committed to pioneering the future growth of women’s MMA by promoting the best possible match-ups between female competitors and identifying and developing future superstars of the sport. For more information, visit InvictaFC.com, follow Invicta on Twitter (@InvictaFights) and like Invicta on Facebook (Facebook.com/InvictaFights).