According to a Jan. 6 report from Yahoo! Sports, Bec Hyatt earned the respect of her critics by hanging in against Carla Esparza at Invicta FC 4.
Make no mistake: Esparza clearly dominated the fight, utilizing her superior wrestling skills to dictate the pace of the action.
While Esparza earned the inaugural Invicta FC strawweight championship strap, Hyatt proved to be a game opponent who is willing to stand and trade strikes with one of the best 115-pounders in the world.
The U.S. media went absolutely gaga for Hyatt in the week leading up to Invicta FC 4, as she had features written about her in Sports Illustrated and dozens of MMA web publications.
How can you not love Hyatt? She has the same "it" factor of such female MMA stars as Ronda Rousey and Gina Carano, so it seems like just a matter of time before she's a household name among sports fans.
Besides Hyatt, here's a look at the rest of the five stars of Invicta FC 4:
Smith is easily the best trash-talker in the Invicta FC ranks, as she said before her fight against Raquel Pennington that she plans to break her down mentally and physically hurt her.
While she wasn't able to finish her opponent, Smith proved to be one of the fiercest strikers in the bantamweight division with a convincing performance at Invicta FC 4.
Smith evoked her inner Nick Diaz by taunting her opponent inside the cage, using a little showmanship to get the fight to go her way. Smith is a crowd-pleaser, and she tried her hardest to put on a show by turning the scrap into a standup slugfest.
Pennington did a good job of not letting emotions get the best of her by staying in the pocket and keeping the action pressed up against the cage, but Smith stole the show with a crisp striking display that propelled her to the top five in the division. Perhaps a matchup with Sarah Kaufman is next for Smith.
- Joanne Calderwood
26-year-old strawweight Joanne Calderwood put on a striking clinic against Livia Von Plettenberg, as she dominated the fight for the full 15 minutes.
The bout was so lopsided that the color commentating team of Bas Rutten and "King Mo" Lawal were calling for Von Plettenberg's corner to throw in the towel after the second round. With the win, Calderwood moves to 5-0 and proves she's a legitimate top ten contender.
Torres, 23, improved to 9-0, including 2-0 in her pro career, with a convincing win over Paige VanZant.
Torres looked better than ever, showing off a well-rounded arsenal of jabs, hooks, leg kicks and crisp combinations. Torres left it all in the cage, emptying the gas tank with a flurry of punches that landed flush on VanZant's face.
Torres may be a legitimate top ten strawweight at this point in her career.
- Veronica Rothenhausler
Rothenhausler fought Katalina Malungahu in just the second fight of Invicta FC 4, but her explosive punching power had the fans on their feet. Rothenhausler needed just 72 seconds to knockout her opponent, and the win had KO of the night written all over it.
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