Virna Jandiroba put her foot on the gas and left Mizuki Inoue behind.
Repeated takedowns, superior positional control and damaging ground-and-pound carried the undefeated Brazilian to a split decision over Inoue, as she captured the vacant Invicta Fighting Championships strawweight title in the Invicta 28 headliner on Saturday at the Union Event Center in Salt Lake City. Judges delivered 49-46 scores across the board, with Rochelle Montanez inexplicably siding with Inoue (12-5) in a fight that never felt competitive.
Jandiroba (13-0) leaned on her strengths, moved into clinch range and planted her Japanese counterpart on the canvas over and over again.