Valerie Letourneau and Joanne Calderwood have both shown a fair bit of promise in their careers but have been victims of factors outside their control.
Letourneau earned her way to a strawweight title shot in 2015 with three straight wins in the UFC, highlighted by a unanimous decision victory over hot prospect Maryna Moroz. Her size and solid grappling make her a legitimate top-10 competitor at 115 pounds, but that size carries the price of a brutal weight cut that hindered her fight night performance.
Calderwood‘s story is quite different.
The UFC does very little to mask its general indifference towards its female fighters (at least the ones not named Ronda Rousey or Joanna Jedrzejczyk) and for Calderwood, and many others, that indifference takes the form of long layoffs between fights. Since the end of The Ultimate Fighter season 20 in 2014, Calderwood has fought just twice, both against unknown newcomers.
That made this seemingly one-off flyweight fight an important one for both women. Letourneau needed to post a career-best performance to help encourage UFC decision-makers to make the division permanent. Calderwood needed to make the most of a rare opportunity to earn a paycheck.
Naturally, only one woman could reap the benefits of this bout. That woman was Calderwood.
The first round was what one would expect from the two, with both women comfortable in the clinch and working dirty boxing and trips. Calderwood broke up the monotony (and likely took the round) with a brutal spinning backfist that knocked Letourneau down cleanly, but couldn’t score the finish on the ground.
When the second round started, Letourneau seemed to have suddenly found her range and timing, working her jab effectively and landing some solid kicks on Calderwood. Unfortunately for Letourneau, Calderwood scored multiple takedowns that kept her from gaining momentum and managed to eat up minutes with solid top control.
Then came the third, and it was no longer a back-and-forth affair. After some early aggression from Letourneau, Calderwood remembered her bread and butter: body shots. A hard kick wounded Letourneau and slowed her down dramatically and, from there, Calderwood opened up further. Another body kick followed and forced Letourneau to turn her back, which led to another flurry punctuated by a spinning backfist. That sent Letourneau crashing to the canvas and drew the stoppage at 2:51 of Round 3.
It was an exceptional performance from Calderwood, demonstrating improved cardio and a larger striking arsenal. Just as important, she showed that the move to the TriStar Gym was a fruitful one with improved clinch grappling skills.
On the flipside, it was a heart-breaker for Letourneau. The Canadian now finds herself coming off back-to-back ugly losses and has her future in doubt. She is also faced with the difficult choice of making the long, hard journey back down to 115 pounds or riding out her UFC career at 135, where she just plain doesn’t have the size, strength or chin to take on top competition.
It’s unclear what the future has in store for both woman, from opponents to weight class to (in Letourneau‘s case) what promotion they’ll be fighting for. Hopefully answers come sooner than later.
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