Grasso not an option? They are both 6-0 and Grasso is 2-0 at Invicta, Karolina 1-0? And while I know this doesnt matter, Karolina lost to Inoue. I have watched that fight in slowmotion and Inoue landed a lot more headstrikes in the third round which should hold more value than Karolinas work to the body imo. Inoue also pushed the action in that round while Karolina was backpedaling a lot. Karolina looked busy with her hands but very few of her punches actually landed.
If you want to ignore rankings Grasso is an option. Gray wasn't top ten and coming off a loss when she fought Grasso. You'd not normally have someone in Grasso's situation take that fight. Even Grasso's fight with Cummins was against someone on a two fight slide. I'd like to see Grasso fight someone who isn't coming off a loss.
Inoue had been the person most looked to for challenge for the Invicta belt so it goes to Karolina Kowalkiewicz.
People are welcome to their opinions about who won the Inoue vs. Kowalkiewicz fight. I don't feel that the judges were wrong in thier decision though. If they had gone for Inoue I wouldn't have been unhappy there either.
In a match up like this I think its safer to lean towards the more grappling based fighter (and the fighter who already has a 5 round fight experience). Based on how well Katja did on the feet against JoJo and Eggins I wouldnt be suprised if we wont see any clear domination on the feet by Karolina. It seems that the constant takedown threat helps Katja a lot with these elite strikers and she also does a good job with her footwork these days and timing to pick her shots and shoots for td`s. I think Katja will have easier task to close the distance against Karolina than against JoJo. Most of the fight is likely going to be clinching against the cage and grappling on the ground.
I tend to go for grapplers in these situation myself. That is why I'm, at first, tempted to go for Kankaanpaa. Yet I've seen Kowalkiewicz do well in her grappling, she is good at getting to her feet, is quick on her feet and her hands, and has a solid clinch game. That is why I don't want to jump to conclusions about Katja Kankaanpaa having an edge - that is tempting.
And as I mentioned clinch fighting is probably going to play a big part in this fight and it is not certain that Kankaanpaa will win it, or get the best offense in, or even get taken down herself.
So far Katja has taken down everyone she has faced, I dont think it will be a much of a problem for her to take Karolina down. I also dont think Karolina has the tools to threat Katja from the bottom like Eggins was able to do, or skills to repeatedly get back to her feet. I dont know how fast pace Karolina is improving her grappling now (its always a some kind of suprise factor with these young talents), but right now I think this match is atleast 60/40 for Katja, maybe even 70/30.
Maybe but that might not be the case. It is guessing that Kankaanpaa is better in all espects of grappling then Kowalkiewicz.
I tend to like the fact that Kankaanpaa has fought tougher competition, for the most part, then Kowalkiewicz. She has a better history of imposing her game on her opponents.
And this last bit is the most important part of that potential fight.
I'm not going to go into a big breakdown of this fight as it is not official to be happening yet.
If I decide to work on it more then I may decide to favor one fighter over the other but until then I'll leave it as a fight that is probably going to be determined by who imposes their game on the other.
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On conditioning.
Kankaanpaa was looking a little tired out, but not as bad, towards the end of the third round with Calderwood as Calderwood's strikes started taking their toll on her.
I'm not as worried about conditioning for Kowalkiewicz as far as striking goes. A grinding fight will tend to favor Kankaanpaa though, assuming Kankaanpaa gets at least even offense going. What I'm concerned with is whether Kowalkiewicz can mount more knees and elbows out of the clinch. I don't think that Kowalkiewicz has a huge advantage, maybe an inch to an inch and a half there but she is far more active and fast - that might help Kankaanpaa get the fight to the ground though.
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Edit to add: Although Kowalkiewicz was tired after her fight with Inoue that was a real fast paced fight for Kowalkiewicz, she threw close to three times as many strikes. That'll tired a person out.
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Re; Ilima-Lei Macfarlane, here's her fight against Stephanie Houser from early in the year, unfortunately the video quality isn't great but still worthy of a watch imo
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Looking forward to seeing her pro debut
Agreed on both counts. Worth seeing again.
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Gadelha is changing up her weight cutting so she won't be as tired out this time around, at least that is the plan. She will be taking a more gradual approach to weight cutting then extreme-water weight cut that she has done in the past. It'll be interesting if her change helps her out on the conditioning side of her fighting.
