It has finally arrived! Invicta FC’s ultimate innovative throwback to the UFC early days is here; the Phoenix Rising series.

Kicking off the new one-night tournament format will be the strawweight division as eight of Invicta’s best 115-pounders will fight there way through multiple opponents to try and become the new champion of the division.

The four quarterfinal match-ups, as well as the semifinals, will all be one round bouts with the finals being a three rounder. The reason for this being because American commissions do not allow for fighters to fight for longer than 25 minutes in one night. So as far as one-night tournaments are concerned, this is the best route to go.

This tournament doesn’t have your traditional bracket though. In the quarterfinals, whoever finishes their fight the fastest will then get to decide who they get to face in the semifinals out of the remaining fighters. That achievement will also be accompanied by a monetary bonus. If there are no finishes, the semifinals will be decided by a random draw just like the quarterfinals were decided.

Originally the tournament was to include top strawweights and recent title challengers in Japan’s Mizuki Inoue and Brazil’s Janaisa Morandin. Unfortunately, Mizuki would suffer health concerns during her weight cut that forced her to withdraw while Morandin missed weight. The alternates in Amber Brown and Manjit Kolekar are now replacing them.

Make sure you follow along below to get all the updates and results as they happen live.

Strawweight – 115lbs: (C) – Finals – Brianna Van Buren def Kailin Curran via second-round submission (rear-naked choke) at 3:49

Strawweight: Magdaléna Šormová def Kay Hansen via split decision (28-29, 29-28, 29-28)

Strawweight: Semifinals – Kailin Curran def Sharon Jacobson via unanimous decision (10-9 all)

Strawweight: Semifinals – Brianna Van Buren def Juliana Lima via unanimous decision (10-9 all)

Strawweight: Reserve bout – Alyssa Krahn def Itzel Esquivel via split decision (9-10, 10-9, 10-9)

Strawweight: Quarterfinals – Sharon Jacobson def Amber Brown via unanimous decision (10-9 all)

Strawweight: Quarterfinals – Brianna Van Buren def Manjit Kolekar via first-round submission (armbar) at 3:20

Strawweight: Quarterfinals – Juliana Lima def Danielle Taylor via split decision (9-10, 10-9, 10-9)

Strawweight: Quarterfinals – Kailin Curran def Sunna Davíðsdóttir via split decision (10-9, 9-10, 10-9)

This article first appeared on BJPenn.com on 5/3/2019