Off Guard: Joanne Calderwood and John Wood on wedding bells and title shots

It’s turning out to be quite the year for Syndicate MMA owner and head coach John Wood and UFC women’s flyweight contender Joanne Calderwood.

The pair recently announced their engagement, with their decision to tie the knot coming at the best point in the Scottish contender’s MMA career.

Wood is used to dealing with the white-hot heat of cornering fighters during big-time fight nights, but Calderwood revealed he was a little hot under the collar as the pressure of a marriage proposal took hold.

“I’m basically still in shock – happy,” she said. “My ring is getting resized, but when I look at it I can’t stop looking at it. He was sweating.”

Wood responded: “It was 100 degrees outside, of course I was sweating!

“I’d thought about it before, and we’d been going on almost two years now being together… it was just time when we had a vacation planned that I knew that was going to completely take her off guard. It was a cool place, it was something that I knew we could get it filmed and I could have the moment captured.

“As far as nerves, I have a really good thing to be able to shut down my mind when it comes down to cornering or things like that, so I put myself in that mode. I just got in there and I think just asked her as we were just taking pictures and the lady was posing us and I said, ‘So, are you ready to hyphenate that name? Do you want to be Calderwood-Wood?’ and she lost her (expletive) and started crying for the next 30 minutes. But, I just got down and did it.”

While Wood and Calderwood planning for a happy future together, they are also planning a similarly happy time for “JoJo” inside the octagon, with the Scot standing on the verge of a shot at the UFC women’s flyweight title.

“I see myself top five – right now I’m No. 3,” she said. “So right now I’m in a good position. Maybe one more fight before the title, or I could potentially just sneak in there, depending (on what happens).

“I’m wondering if Valentina wants one more fight before the end of the year, and I’m just being ready. There’s another two flyweight fights coming up, so (I’m) just in the gym staying ready, and ready for any opportunity that comes my way.”

Some fighters would want to ensure they get a full fight camp ahead of their shot at UFC gold, but Calderwood knows that you have to take your chance when it comes, so she’s making sure she’s in tip-top shape for whenever that phone rings.

“I’ve been doing this for 20 years and I’m not here to sit back and turn down any opportunity coming my way,” she said. “This is the moment and the best I’ve been in my career. I’m happy, I’m physically in the best shape of my career and I’m ready.”

The reason for that attitude is partly because of the fact that the UFC had sounded her out for a potential short-notice title shot after her win over Andrea Lee in Abu Dhabi, as Wood explained.

“By the time we got back to our connecting flight some people from the UFC had already mentioned to us about it: ‘There’s a potential matchup in three weeks for the title. Potentially, do you want it?’” he said. “She, coming off a broken nose and everything, said yes immediately. The one thing with the UFC, you certainly don’t want to turn down title fights. Three weeks, banged up, she said yes to it. It didn’t pan out, but she’s ready whatever.”

And it’s that willingness to jump at an opportunity when it arises that Wood says could play in Calderwood’s favor when the time comes to sign reigning flyweight champion Valentina Shevchenko to her next title defense.

“We’ve seen what happens to people who turn down a title shot before,” he said. “When you have that big of an opportunity, you don’t say no, no matter what. If her leg was hanging off, maybe we’d think about maybe we’re not gonna do that. It’s just in this sport, you never know.

“You might be able to leapfrog a couple of people. If you say no you might get kicked down the line and wait four or five fights and it never comes up. So you have to take the opportunity whether it’s good, bad or indifferent. That’s something we’ve seen over the years is the UFC is always appreciative of is people who are willing to step up and fight whenever they’re called.”