Joanne Calderwood rebounded from the first loss of her pro career with a come-from-behind unanimous decision win over Cortney Casey in their main card strawweight bout Saturday in Glasgow.
Casey was completely undaunted by taking on a top-10 opponent in hostile territory on just 10 days’ notice in her UFC debut as she jumped out and hurt Calderwood on the feet badly with straight punches to the head to open the first round.
Calderwood managed to clinch up and survive before Casey jumped guard. From there, Casey managed to still dominate the action, with submission attempts and the harder and more numerous strikes in the form of punches and elbows.
In the second round, Calderwood backed Casey up with punches and hurt her opponent with big shots. Calderwood landed an illegal knee to the head against the cage as Casey was down on one hand.
The referee saw it but warned Casey instead of Calderwood.
The Scot worked for a takedown but chose to stand up outside of the dangerous full guard of Casey. On the feet, they traded elbows, kicks and big punches, with each woman getting hurt before Calderwood scored another takedown.
On top, inside the half guard, Calderwood was able to score good elbows against the cage. Casey moved to an inverted guard but only ate punches from there.
Calderwood stood up and finished the round hard with a left hook and right cross to the head at the end of the round. In the third and final round, Calderwood immediately pressed Casey backwards with punches.
The overhand right landed big and often for the hometown fighter, as a counter to Casey’s leg kicks. Soon, however, Calderwood also began to work body shots as well.
Calderwood landed a spinning back kick to the rib cage of the American and dropped Casey. “JoJo” followed her to the ground immediately with punches but Casey managed to pull butterfly guard and ride out the storm.
After letting her back up to her feet, Calderwood scored another takedown on Casey and methodically worked with strikes. Calderwood once again let her opponent back up but Casey pulled guard with about a minute left.
From there, the game Casey worked triangle choke and leg lock submission holds, but Calderwood defended them all and ended the fight raining down big strikes from on top. Post-fight, Calderwood embraced her opponent and handed her a Scottish flag.
Scores were 30-27 (twice), and 29-28 for Calderwood.
The TUF veteran got back on the winning track and improved her record to 10-1. Casey’s young record drops to 4-2, but she clearly demonstrated that she has top-10 talent, and it will be great to see her fight with a full training camp behind her.
For her part, Calderwood said her win was more over personal struggles than anything else. Ultimately, she was able to let loose and enjoy fighting in front of her home crowd, instead of being pressured by the stage.
“It wasn’t pressure, it was a pleasure,” she said.
“I felt I needed a hard fight…and this was a fight against my demons.”
Courtesy of: Fox Sports