Brianna Van Buren was a woman possessed in Friday’s Invicta FC Phoenix Rising Series 1 one-night tournament. The 28-year old from Gilroy, Calif., was bold from the get-go in the eight-woman, single-elimination tournament, which crowned a new strawweight champion at Memorial Hall in Kansas City, Kansas. Along the way to claiming the title, Van Buren (10-2) scored the only finish of the quarterfinal round with an armbar of Manjit Kolekar; called out and defeated the tourney’s biggest name in the semifinals in Julianna Lima , then ended an inspired underdog by Kailin Curran via second-round submission run to claim the championship. “You want smoke, come get it,” Van Buren said. Van Buren wasted little time in the opening round, scoring a takedown early; pummeling Kolekar with left hands as she got back to her feet, and then transitioning into a nifty armbar to end the fight in 3:20. It's done! @115_brianna takes an arm at 3:20 secs of round 1 and could potentially choose her semifinals opponent with the fastest quarterfinals finish thus far! #PhoenixRising pic.twitter.com/fwgM8CuPay — UFC FIGHT PASS (@UFCFightPass) May 4, 2019 The evening’s quarterfinal and semifinal rounds were one, five-minute round each, with the finals scheduled for three, five-minute rounds
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