While it’s not been officially confirmed at the time of writing, a credible source has claimed that Joanne Calderwood is out of her UFC Fight Night 80 headline fight with Paige VanZant on December 10th in Las Vegas.
The news comes from Team Alpha Male’s Justin Buchholz on the latest edition of ‘Stud Show Radio’, and he’s well positioned to know what’s going on given that VanZant trains at the same gym, though he gave no indication as to why Calderwood is unable to compete.
However, according to Buchholz the UFC already have a replacement lined up for PVZ, with Rose Namajunas set to step in as a replacement to preserve the fight’s main event status.
“I’ve got a huge announcement,” Buccholz said. “So I found out that Paige VanZant’s opponent… Calderwood’s out. She’s out. Paige, she’s fighting Rose Namajunas. That’s a main event slot, so it’s going to be an awesome fight.”
The 21 year-old VanZant is one of the UFC’s most talked about up and coming stars with three victories in the Octagon in the space of a year so far which has left her placed at No.6 on the official strawweight rankings.
Namajunas, who’s two years her elder is another potential star in the division who rose to prominence as a finalist on TUF season 20, losing to Carla Esparza before rebounding with a first round submission stoppage against Angela Hill earlier this month, leaving her ranked No.3 at 115lbs.
