[autotag]Joanne Calderwood[/autotag] will not be fighting for a UFC title, at least for now.
The UFC women’s flyweight contender stepped in as a late replacement to take on Jennifer Maia at UFC on ESPN+ 31 on Aug. 1 in Las Vegas. Maia’s original opponent, Viviane Araujo, was forced to withdraw from the contest after testing positive for COVID-19 in the pre-fight screenings.
Late-notice switches happen often in MMA, but Calderwood’s (14-4 MMA, 6-4 UFC) came as a surprise to many, as she was slated to challenge UFC champ [autotag]Valentina Shevchenko[/autotag]. The title bout was supposed to go down at UFC 251 in June, but it was postponed after “The Bullet” suffered an injury.
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“With this sport you’ve got to be ready for anything,” Calderwood wrote on Instagram. “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 (against Maia), super excited because I was ready and I am still ready.
“We all take risks, and the risk (of) waiting until 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 3-1 in her last four UFC bouts. She’s coming off a split-decision win over Andrea Lee at UFC 242 in September. Meanwhile, Maia is looking to bounce back from a decision loss to Katlyn Chookagian. Prior to that, she was on a two-fight winning streak.
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