Big Bad Blog Video Theater-Joanne Calderwood vs Cortney Casey

Here's the match video of Joanne Calderwood vs Cortney Casey from this afternoon's UFC show in Glasgow, Scotland. Of course Joanne is a Glasgow native so the fans went nuts for her. She needed a big win after a bad loss in her last fight. Her original opponent Bec Rawlings dropped out a couple of weeks ago and Cortney stepped in on a week's notice. The only thing the UFC asked her was if she would have trouble making weight as she has fought mainly at 125lb. Her record is 4-1 and she has mostly fought for PXC in Guam. So this was a big step up in competition for and it's short notice. Cortney lives in Hawaii and is trained by her husband Edward Sanchez. She was signed to Invicta but hadn't fought for them yet. If Cortney was going to win this fight, she needed to finish it early or she would gas out. And she had a chance to do that as she hurt Joanne early in round one with strikes. But Cortney let up when she should have kept up the pressure. Then she went for a flying armbar of all things and landed in bottom position. And that was the turning point of the fight. Though Joanne did nothing from the top and Cortney was active from the bottom position, two of the three judges scored the round 10-9 for Joanne. Top position is king with some judges. I scored the round 10-9 for Cortney. Then Cortney's corner tells her to pull guard again. That's terrible strategy. The judges won't like that. By the middle of round two, Cortney was gassed out and Joanne was avoiding her guard. And in round three, a spin kick to the body dropped Cortney but it was too close to the fence for Joanne to get a finish. So Joanne won the fight by unanimous decision. I scored it 29-28 for Joanne. But Cortney had a chance to finish the fight early and she made a mistake and it slipped through her fingers. But her performance was good enough to get them a fight of the night bonus. With a full camp, Cortney could be a contender. Joanne's win didn't change my concerns about her. She's a one dimensional kickboxer with no ground game. And in this fight as in her last fight, she was rattled by strikes early in the fight and she was fortunate this fight didn't end like that one. She's got work to do. At least she got a big win in her home town. Enjoy the video!