Joanne Calderwood picked up her third win at flyweight on Saturday night with a unanimous decision victory over Ariane Lipski, but that won’t be enough to earn her a shot at Valentina Shevchenko’s title belt.
“Off the top of my head we said we were going to do a fight with Jessica Eye,” White revealed when asked if Calderwood would get the title opportunity. “I think Eye is next.”
Nevertheless, White did seem impressed with Calderwood’s performance on the night.
“Lipski, coming off a nine-fight win streak, a world champion in another organization with tons of hype behind her, we put her in with a crafty, nasty veteran,” White stated at the UFC On ESPN+ 1 post-fight press conference. “[Calderwood] came out and she looked awesome tonight… ‘Jojo’ looked incredible she fought the perfect fight.”
Like Calderwood, Eye has racked up three victories since joining the 125lb division, defeating Kalindra Faria, Jessica-Rose Clarke and Katyln Chookagian along the way – although two of those wins were by split decision and the other being a unanimous verdict.
By way of comparison, Calderwood’s three victories came against Valerie Letourneau, Kalindra Faria and Ariane Lipski, including a TKO and submission stoppage.
The news that Calderwood won’t be getting either Shevchenko or Eye next is likely to be a disappointment for the Scottish fighter, who had named them as the two fighters she was most interested in fighting next.
However, Eye had already brushed aside the idea of fighting ‘Jo-Jo’ after Saturday night’s fight.
“🤷♀️ go enjoy your win get off Twitter or this your manager?” Eye wrote. “Let me and @BulletValentina take care of business and you can have the winner. Gives you plenty of time to work up to hating me and working on your cardio . You’ll have plenty to do.”
Later, Calderwood stated that, “All I see is excuses,” when asked for her immediate reaction to that comment, while on Twitter she fired back with, “I’ll work my cardio on your face…..how about that?”
