John Wood is confident that [autotag]Joanne Calderwood[/autotag] will shock the world and dethrone UFC women’s flyweight champion [autotag]Valentina Shevchenko[/autotag].
Calderwood (14-4 MMA, 6-4 UFC) was scheduled to face Shevchenko (19-3 MMA, 8-2 UFC) at UFC 251 in June, but the fight was postponed after Shevchenko suffered an undisclosed injury.
In the meantime, Calderwood has been staying ready with her head coach and fiancee Wood, who has set up a home gym in their garage.
“Jojo, she’s fired up,” Wood told MMA Junkie. “She’s been waiting for this opportunity her whole career and, obviously, for the last year we’ve been kinda on deck, knowing this was going to be the eventual projection of her career, to fight for the title. So, when it got announced we were obviously excited and stoked, and then literally right after, it got shut down, so we figured it was going to be pushed back anyway.
“The fight’s definitely going to get postponed and pushed back to what I’m hearing is maybe August. Jojo stays ready, she’s one of those people that just trains religiously every day. If she’s not in Syndicate (MMA), she’s at the PI and right now, with both of those being closed, she’s doing her home workouts. We’ve got a full gym set up in the garage and inside the house.”
Since joining the UFC roster in 2014 through “The Ultimate Fighter,” Calderwood was tipped for big things when she was rated the No. 2 seed going into the house.
Though she didn’t live up to her potential at 115 pounds, Calderwood has enjoyed more success since moving up to flyweight. The Scot has won three of her last four, and is coming off a split-decision win over Andrea Lee in September 2019.
With her form starting to peak, Wood is positive that Calderwood’s time is now.
“She’s ready when the time comes, she’ll get in there and, no doubt in my mind, you’ll see a new champ coming out of that division.”