Women’s MMA pioneer Roxanne Modafferi is coming off a crushing win over Barb Honchak and a decision loss to Nicco Montano for the inaugural UFC Women’s flyweight championship. However, between 2010-2013 ‘The Happy Warrior’ lost six in a row and appeared at the end of her career. The source of her resurrection is an extraordinary amount of hard work and John Wood’s Syndicate MMA.
JoJo Calderwood had been 11-1, but heading into her fight Saturday night was on a two-fight losing streak, and failed to make weight her previous fight. With a loss to Kalindra Faria at UFC Fight Night 135, JoJo would be 0-3 her last three, and likely out of the UFC at age 31.
However, JoJo switched camps for the fight to John Wood’s house of resurrection, Syndicate MMA. You know how it worked out – the kickboxer won via Triangle with three seconds to go in Round 1.
“I am a striker,” said Dr. Kneevil afterward. “But when all these b****es are tryina take me down I was like, ‘f*** I better get better at my Jiu-Jitsu.’ And now I’m well rounded.”
It's a real shame this one got bleeped because it means you don't get to hear Joanne Calderwood talking about "these betches" who keep taking her down.pic.twitter.com/WDrcKj3hSZ
— Ben Fowlkes (@benfowlkesMMA) August 26, 2018
Wood wants all the credit to go to the hard work that his fighters put in. But they always worked hard. Modafferi was told she couldn’t be a striker, and she just won a big fight via strikes. Calderwood was told she couldn’t be a grappler, and she just won a big fight via submission.
Roxy was a little more of an extreme case, said Wood to Marc Raimondi for MMA Fighting. Roxy hadn’t been to the UFC and she got to The Ultimate Fighter and failed. So it was a little more extreme on her end. For JoJo, I think this was definitely make or break in the UFC. … But they kind of had the same story. Jo is definitely an athlete. Realistically, it’s just kind of mindset with her, giving her the tools. As long as she’s in a good mindset, I think she can beat anyone in the world.
The same thing with Roxy. Roxy is just one of those ones, she’s just a worker, man. Both of these girls, they just come and in and probably out of all of my fighters, the girls are really hardcore. Just dedicated to training. They grind every day. They’re hard on themselves. I have to tell them to let me coach more than anything else, not let them nitpick and be hard on themselves.
It doesn’t matter how talented you are, it doesn’t matter how strong, how athletic you are, if you don’t have the mindset, the mind for it, you’re not gonna go very far. Both those girls have amazingly tough minds and they’re very, very mentally strong. It was just about a matter of them discovering that.
When people come to me, like Roxy or JoJo, they’re all super talented. They’re just missing a couple of little holes and little things. And I think that’s where my forte is, patching those up for them. I’ve always had a good, natural eye for that.
I’ve kind of gotten into this thing where I’m resurrecting careers, I guess. Or whatever.
