Shauna Bannon Impresses In Invicta FC Debut Win

The 2021 SevereMMA Irish Amateur Fighter Of The Year Shauna Bannon carried on her impressive budding professional career in the early hours of Thursday morning with an emphatic win over Nadia Vera in her Invicta FC debut at the Sugar Creek Casino in Oklahoma. 

The Tallaght native came out of the traps very quickly and caught her Mexican opponent with numerous flurries of strikes. A throw attempt saw Bannon end up on her back midway through the round but, despite some top-control from Vera, panic never set in and Bannon went about winning from the bottom. A triangle choke attempt almost achieved that but Vera defended well until round’s end. 

The second five-minutes was spent much more in the striking department. Vera did land her fair share of strikes but it was the Paddy Holohan-trained Bannon who clearly provided the better work. Another throw attempt eventually lead to her catching Vera in another triangle choke attempt which saw Bannon land a series of late stabbing elbows to clearly take the middle round.

Two beautiful jabs and a hard right hand from Vera had Bannon backing up to begin round three. Smartly, the Dub took her time and recovered in a long clinch battle which swiftly followed. Again, Bannon saw her back on the canvas but this time the armbar was the submission of choice as she won the ground battle with some additional strikes. As the last minute came, the fight ended up back on the feet where Bannon landed a series of strikes and had Vera in trouble as the final bell sounded. 

Fifteen valuable minutes in the bag and an impressive performance were followed by all three judges seeing Bannon as the winner and moving to 3-0 in her professional career. 

Podcaster, lead MMA writer and analyst for SevereMMA. Host of the SevereMMA podcast, out every Sunday. Economics and Mathematics graduate from UCC. Also write for Sherdog. Previously of hov-mma and fightbooth. As heard on 2FM, Red FM, Today FM and more. Follow me on twitter for updates @SeanSheehanBA and on Facebook Facebook.com/seansheehanmma

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