UFC women’s flyweight contender Joanne Calderwood fought her way to a title shot vs. Valentina Shevchenko, scheduled for 251 last month. When “Bullet” suffered an injury and pulled out, the obvious thing would be to wait, However, JoJo instead gamely stepped in on short notice vs. Jennifer Maia at UFC on ESPN+ 31 on August 1 in Las Vegas, when previously contract opponent Viviane Araujo tested positive for COCID-19.
Calderwood explained the decision on her social network.
“With this sport you got to be ready for anything,” she wrote. “I got word that Valentina pushed the date of her return back again and I made the decision to take a fight. God is good the next day I got offered this one, super excited because I was ready and I am still ready. We all take risks, and the risk waiting till the end of the year or whenever the champ does decide to come back is one I don’t want to take. ‘I’m a peacock, you gotta let me fly!’”
Calderwood is coming off a Split Decision win over Andrea Lee at UFC 242 in September, while Maia aims to bounced back from a Unanimous Decision loss to Katlyn Chookagian at UFC 244 in November.
Rankings for the referenced fighters are below., in bold.
CHAMP: Valentina Shevchenko
1. Katlyn Chookagian
2. Cynthia Calvillo
3. Joanne Calderwood
4. Lauren Murphy
5. Jessica Eye
6. Jennifer Maia
7. Roxanne Modafferi
8. Viviane Araujo
9. Andrea Lee
10. Maycee Barber
