When Joanne Calderwood lost for the first time in her professional MMA career - against Maryna Moroz at UFC Fight Night 64 in Poland last month - the general consensus was that she didn't look herself.
She was missing her usual steely-eyed killer instinct and paid the price by being submitted in the first round. And the more obsessive viewers would also have noticed she was missing something else - her regular cornerman James Doolan. And here's where things get complicated.
Much more than being JoJo's coach and manager, Doolan was also her fiance and had been in the corner for all of her previous nine pro bouts. Clearly something was wrong and Joanne was not in the right frame of mind. "I felt physically fine," she says. "My body was in the cage, but my head was definitely not."
Tongues were wagging when, the night after the fight, she posted a long message to fans on her Facebook page explaining that she had suffered some kind of betrayal the night before the fight in Krakow. Cue all manner of wild speculation about the nature of her breakup with Doolan. But, as she now explains to Herald Sport, Calderwood's pre-bout problems came from Sweden, and had nothing to do with Doolan or her home at the Dinky Ninja Fight Team in Scotland.
She says: "James and I had split up before the fight in Poland, and six weeks before the fight we needed time apart. I decided to go and train in Sweden to get away from everything. I thought that was the right thing for me to do, but I felt so alone. I had a great training camp, there was nothing wrong from that point of view."
As well as the Krakow fight, Calderwood was without Doolan while she competed on the UFC's reality TV show The Ultimate Fighter. On the show, she lost one fight and won another. But in both matches, she looked out of sorts. Those bouts do not count towards her record, but clearly she still thinks about them. She says: "The few times I've not performed in my career, James hasn't been in my corner and I didn't have my team around me. Things were not right.
"Something happened in the Swedish camp the night before the fight. It was really unsettling and I didn't sleep. It was really unprofessional and I've cut all ties with those people. It was nothing to do with James or my team at home."
Having cleared that up (although she won't go into detail about the Swedish incident), Calderwood explains that she is working with Doolan at his Higher Level gym once again, but their relationship outside of MMA is over. "We've worked it all out, James will be in my corner for my future fights and I'm back training with my team. We've come to an agreement, he's going to be coaching me and I'm going to be looking for new management."
Having lost to Moroz, Calderwood has had to accept an opponent some regard as unworthy. Loudmouth Australian Bec Rawlings was a fellow contestant on The Ultimate Fighter's 20th season, but didn't get her wish of a fight with JoJo. Now Rawlings will get her chance at UFC Fight Night 72 on July 18, at The Hydro in Glasgow. Calderwood says: "I think it's unfair to say she's not in my league. This is MMA and anything can happen. If you think people are not on your level, you're going to be in trouble.
"But I will say that I don't like her. She and Angela Magana were very pally on The Ultimate Fighter and they are horrible people, just bullies. Good people attract good people, and those two are not good people. The only thing she has that can hurt me is her mouth, and I'm not one to let talk affect me. I'm going to get back to winning ways and I'll be doing it in front of a Scottish crowd.
"The tickets are going fast and it will be a brilliant night. I fought on a CageWarriors card in Glasgow and having all those fans behind me made me feel really good inside. This time it's the UFC and there will be 10 times as many people. It's going to be amazing."
Calderwood was believed to be in line for a shot at the UFC's 115lb strawweight title if she had beaten Moroz. And with the weight class wide open, a solid defeat of Rawlings could restore that status. But she's not betting on it. "I want to earn it. I'd rather have two more good fights, two good wins, before I even start thinking about titles. Maybe after two more fights, it will be next year and the UFC might be coming back to Scotland again. That would be perfect."
Tickets for UFC Fight Night Glasgow go on sale at noon today (Friday, May 29). The show is headlined by a bout between Michael Bisping and Thales Leites.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article