July 9, 2015
Hamasaki defeated Herica Tiburcio via split decision (48-47, 47-48, 49-46) to win the Invicta FC atomweight championship on Thursday in Las Vegas.
ANALYSIS
This was not an exciting fight and it was made even worse by a dreadful performance from referee Kim Winslow. Hamasaki won this fight due to her strength and takedown ability. She got caught in a couple rear naked choke attempts, but she managed to slip out and survive. Hamasaki did a good job of forcing Tiburcio against the fence and controlling the pace on the ground. MMAFighting.com's Marc Raimondi may have said it best on Twitter: "this division is going to miss Michelle Waterson." The 105-pound division in Invicta just isn't particularly deep or talented.