Atomweight Laura Sanko has been forced to withdraw from her upcoming bout at Invicta FC 6 after revealing she's become pregnant. Originally slated to face Livia Von Plettenberg on the July card, Sanko has been replaced by relative newcomer Cassie Robb.

Robb, 0-1 since making her professional debut in January, was submitted by Sanko via a second-round rear naked choke at Invicta FC 4. Von Pletten...

MMA Fighting's Mike Chiappetta revealed last week that Cris Cyborg and her management team, including UFC Hall of Famer Tito Ortiz, passed on the chance to face Ronda Rousey in the first-ever UFC women's bout at UFC 157 in February.

Ortiz was so frustrated with the situation that he requested, and secured, Cyborg's release from her UFC contract to fight for Invicta FC at 145 pounds. Chiappetta ...

Bloody Elbow is creating our own Women's MMA Rankings. This time around we are debuting our Featherweight (145 lb) rankings, home of Cristiane "Cyborg" Justino.

Our rankings panel is composed of Fraser Coffeen, a staff writer for BloodyElbow and a former editor and contributor at LiverKick.com, Zane Simon, the arbiter of Bloody Elbow's MMA promotion rosters, MMA Mania's Brian Hemminger, host of ...

Marloes Coenen will have a chance to prove it was performance enhancing drugs -- not skill -- that was the deciding factor against Cristiane Justino when they first did the dance back in Strikeforce. Their championship rematch has now been set for Invicta FC 6, scheduled for July 13, 2013 at the Ameristar Casino Hotel in Kansas City, Missouri.

"Cyborg" defeated "Rumina" by way of technical knock...

When July's Invicta FC 6 card was announced last week, there was one glaring omission, an opponent had not been found for Leslie Smith. That spot has now been filled by young Brazilian Jennifer Maia, fresh off a unanimous decision victory over Zoila Frausto-Gurgel.

Smith is a high output kickboxer with a deep striking arsenal and an ability to continually bring the fight to her opponents. Even i...

Via Wrestling Observer (subscription only), Dave Meltzer has released what appears to be the rumored female cast for the upcoming season of 'The Ultimate Fighter.' UFC women's bantamweight champion Ronda Rousey will appear opposite Cat Zingano as the program's first ever female coaches. The pair will coach teams consisting of men and women, bantamweights all.

While Meltzer makes clear that this ...

Back in the fall of 2012, Mike Dolce flew out to Southern California to meet with Cris Cyborg. At the time, the former Strikeforce featherweight champion was preparing to return from a one-year suspension for a positive steroids test, and looking forward to turning the page. Her future, though, was cloudy. While her longtime promotion was about to fold into the UFC, and UFC president Dana White a...

KANSAS CITY, Mo. (May 1, 2013) - On the heels of her second-career Invicta Fighting Championships "Fight of the Night" performance, crowd-pleasing, prolific striker Leslie "The Peacemaker" Smith (5-3-1) of Pleasanton, Calif. has signed a new, multi-fight agreement with the women's world championship Mixed Martial Arts (MMA) promotion and will drop from bantamweight (135 pounds) to flyweight (125 ...

Leslie Smith, a two-time 'Fight of the Night' winner at Invicta FC, has signed a multi-fight agreement with the organization and has agreed to face Jennifer Maia on July 13th at Invicta FC 6. Sources close to the situation confirm the news and further indicate Smith will drop from bantamweight to flyweight.

Invicta FC 6 takes place on July 13th at the Ameristar Casino Kanasis City in Kansas City...

It's only been a little over a week since we say Miesha Tate take a beating at the hands of Cat Zingano at The Ultimate Fighter 17 Finale, but already she's got her eyes on her next fight, a scrap with recent title contender Liz Carmouche. The UFC has announced that, pending medical clearance the fight would happen at July's UFC on Fox 8 card. Dave Doyle at MMAFighting has the details:

Miesha Ta...

MMA Fighting has the Invicta FC 6 fight card for the Invicta FC event on July 13 at the Ameristar Casino in Kansas City, Mo.In the main event, Cris Cyborg will square off against Marloes Coenen for the inaugural Invicta FC featherweight title. In the co-main event, Carla Esparza will defend her strawweight title against Ayaka Hamasaki.Check out the Invicta FC 6 fight card below.

Main Card (Onlin...

You have to hand it to Michael Bisping. He's gotten fairly good at riling up opposition during fight promotion, although some of it is shtick, some of it is sensitivity playing itself out. Whatever the case, it was on full display during Monday's UFC 159 conference call.

Bisping, who is scheduled to face Alan Belcher at Saturday's event, let loose on the American middleweight, who has been doing...

Event: Invicta FC 6: "Cyborg vs. Coenen 2"Date: Sat., July 13, 2013, at 10 p.m. ET via online pay-per-view (PPV)Location: Ameristar Casino Hotel in Kansas City, Missouri

Main Event:

145 lbs.: Cris Cyborg vs. Marloes Coenen for Invicta featherweight championship

Online PPV main card (10 p.m. ET):

115 lbs.: Carla Esparza vs. Ayaka Hamasaki for Invicta strawweight championship135 lbs.: Sarah D'A...

Invicta FC returns to Kansas City, MO on July 27 for it's sixth iteration. They've already announced the fight card via their website, and baring a major string of injuries, it may be their best card to date. Marloes Coenen faces Cris Cybor for the inagural Invicta featherweight title, and Carla Esparza makes her first defence of the strawweight belt. Beyond the excitement of the big names though...

Everywhere you look, chicks are headlining fight cards these days. February had Rounda Rousey defending her world title in a UFC pay per view main event and now Invicta FC has announced their latest main event - a rematch between Cristiane "Cyborg" Santos and Dutch Marloes Coenen Pretty sweet, if you ask us.

Invicta always has a women's bout as their headliner, of course, because they are an a...

By: Jamie Penick, MMATorch Editor-in-Chief

Invicta Fighting Championships has set a date and location for their sixth event, and they've got the card almost entirely lined up as well. Invicta FC 6 will see them return to the Ameristar Casino Hotel in Kansas City, Mo. on Saturday, July 13, headlined by the IFC Women's Featherweight Title bout b...

The SB Nation rankings panel is back with a new chart, and this one is all over the place. Our six panelists (Ariel Helwani and Dave Doyle from MMA Fighting; Brian Hemminger and Thomas Myers from MMA Mania; Dallas Winston and yours truly from Bloody Elbow) were asked to come up with a list of the top 10 women in MMA, pound-for-pound. Since WMMA is relatively new to the UFC, Bellator hasn't run ma...

Women's mixed martial arts (MMA) is currently enjoying a boom in popularity, thanks to the recent success of Invicta FC and Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC), both of which built their success on the foundation laid by Scott Coker in Strikeforce.

The former home of UFC Women's Bantamweight Champion Ronda Rousey.

In addition, we have a new crop of female fighters joining the ranks of ZUFFA on...

The UFC hasn't had a battle of undefeated fighters in a championship match since Lyoto Machida challenged Rashad Evans for the light heavyweight title at UFC 98.

But Cat Zingano's victory over Miesha Tate at The Ultimate Fighter 17 Finale changes all that. Zingano improved to 8-0 with her third-round TKO win, setting her up as a coach against UFC bantamweight champion Ronda Rousey and a future t...

Carla Esparza winsThe featherweight championship bout between Marloes Coenen and Cris “Cyborg” Santos headlines Invicta FC 6 this summer, but the fight card is growing with the addition of two strawweight bouts.