Invicta 7: Joanne Calderwood says her dream opponent is herself - Bloody Elbow
MMA Sentinel: You're fighting Katja Kankannpaa this weekend at Invicta FC 7. She's maybe not the most familiar name to most fans, but she's ranked third in the world at strawweight, and she's definitely going to be a tough fight. Did you specifically ask for a fighter who was ranked higher than you, to start climbing your way towards the title?
Joanne Calderwood: Throughout my career, my managers have pretty much dealt with making my fights, and now with me being with Invicta, the promotion is dealing with the matchmaking. While I was in Kansas for my last fight for Invicta, they basically said they were thinking of Katja next. Obviously at the time I was concentrating on my opponent, but we knew that after the fight Katja would be next.
She's 8-0-1 and I'm 7-0, so I think this is a perfect step up for me. She's above me in the rankings, so it's worked out perfectly. As always the matchmakers at Invicta have really come through.
MMA Sentinel: A lot of people are kind of billing this as a sort of style versus style matchup; she's very much a grappler, and you're based in Muay Thai. I've seen you training before and I've seen you in there with guys with 30lbs on you trying to take you down, and trying to throw you around with no success. Do you think that maybe people from outside the UK are underestimating your grappling a bit, or that they think you'll be an easy target because the UK doesn't have a wrestling background?
Joanne Calderwood: I don't think they're underestimating me, I just think they're praising me for being an exciting stand-up fighter, which a lot of people appreciate. In my second fight, I took Lena Ovchynnikova to the ground a few times, but then when I watched the fight, I heard the commentary, and they were saying, ‘Oh, she doesn't want to stand with Lena.' So I was like, ‘Wait a minute, it's an MMA fight!'
I'm not going in there thinking, ‘I'm going to stand up with this girl,' I'm quite happy to go to the ground and grapple. I love clinching and I love wrestling, so I just wait and see what happens when I'm in there, but I don't think anyone underestimates me. I would hope not anyway, because I'm a professional athlete and I'm not going to go in there unprepared, or only with my striking behind me.
Calderwood on tällä hetkellä 115-paunaisten hypetetyin ottelija. Ai että tekisi gutaa, kun Katja wrestlefuckaisi tuon junan huomenna raiteiltaan. :fuckyeah: