When the promotion’s president doesn’t know what’s happening, you know there’s something strange going on.
A strange quirk in the stipulation for Invicta 16 weight limits means that a pair of fighters initially appeared to have missed weight but were told by the commission that they had actually made the limit.
Irene Aldana weighed in at 136.6 lbs for her bantamweight clash with former The Ultimate Fighter contestant Jessamyn Duke during Thursday night’s weigh-ins.
#InvictaFC16 Weigh-in Results: Irene Aldana (136.6) vs. Jessamyn Duke (134.9)
— Invicta FC (@InvictaFights) March 11, 2016
And similarly, Herica Tiburcio came in at 106.9 lbs for her atomweight fight against Jinh Yu Frey.
Typically, the Nevada State Athletic Commission allows for a 1 lb allowance for non-title fights which means that 136 lbs and 106 lbs should have been the limit for both of the above fights, and both Duke and Frey treated them as such.
But in an oversight in the paperwork, the signed bout agreements showed that the fights were scheduled for 136 lbs (not 135 lbs) and 106 lbs (not 105 lbs) so both Aldana and Tiburcio were given the lb allowance up to 137 lbs and 107 lbs respectively.
#InvictaFC16 Weigh-in Results: Herica Tiburcio (106.9) vs. Jinh Yu Frey (105.5)
— Invicta FC (@InvictaFights) March 11, 2016
It all sounds very confusing and the goings-on even stumped Invicta FC president Shannon Knapp.
“It’s plain and simple,” Knapp told MMAFighting afterwards. “That’s what happened. That’s why I looked so confused up there. We were all confused.”
Justice prevailed and Knapp decided to reward both Duke and Frey with the usual compensation after opponents miss weight with 25% of each opponents’ purse going towards them.
134.9 – I handled business tonight and tomorrow I will do the same. @onlinekratom #Invi… https://t.co/m4uq3CwTW0 pic.twitter.com/ZTo2Uu88G2
— Jessamyn Duke (@jessamynduke) March 11, 2016
But because neither Aldana nor Tiburcio actually broke any rules, they weren’t punished financially. The hit came from Invicta’s own pocket.
“We always do the right thing,” Knapp added. “It might hurt a little bit, but we’re still gonna do the right thing. I don’t think there was ever a question. We just needed to walk away from it and talk about it first. Figure out what was going on.”
