Well, that just got weird…
Invicta FC women’s bantamweight champ Tonya Evinger defeated Colleen Schneider via unanimous decision (49-45, 50-44, 50-44) in the main event on Saturday night in Costa Mesa, Calif. After the bout, the champion proceeded to puke into a bucket cage side, which has become somewhat of a signature move. Even more shocking – during her post fight interview, the openly gay Evinger proceeded to lay a kiss on Invicta FC ring announcer Laura Sanko. She claimed she wanted to make “MMA moment of the year” – well, mission accomplished.
#InvictaFC17pic.twitter.com/I51iW5b3YD
— caposa (@GrabakaHitman) May 8, 2016
Sanko pulled back after realizing what was happening and seemed to laugh it off. Though the world was shocked, the two are supposed out of the cage friends, Sanko even putting out a tweet afterwards citing Evinger as “a heck of a prankster.”
It’s all good! @tonyaevinger is a heck of a prankster but we are friends lol 🙂 #invictafc17 #IFC17 @InvictaFights pic.twitter.com/otNZGDP9bG
— Laura Sanko (@laura_sanko) May 8, 2016
Whether this was to save face or she was truly okay with it, this is not the first time Evinger has been so free with the “love”. In the lead up to their ELITEXC bout in 2007, Tonya Evinger admitted to wanting to make out with then opponent Gina Carano .
“I’d like to make out with Gina, but I am here to knock her out,” Evinger said at the time. “Either way she wants it, though, is fine with me.”
With Tonya Evinger being so bold in her out of the cage antics, could her actions turn off potential fighters and possibly a signing with the UFC? Also is this potential grounds for sexual harassment? While it seems Laura Sanko was okay with the kiss would the situation change if it was a male fighter that initiated the lip lock? Evinger’s “MMA moment of the year” has been met with mixed reviews but at the very least has started a very interesting dialogue. What do you guys think? Do antics like this have a place in professional sports, or are these actions out of line?
