Jennifer Maia and Viviane Araujo were scheduled to meet next month at UFC Fight Night: Brunson vs. Shahbazyan, but Araujo would test positive for the coronavirus and would get pulled from the bout.
A surprising replacement would step in on short notice to battle Maia and that person was Joanne Calderwood, who is expected to get the next shot at UFC Women’s Flyweight Champion Valentina Shevchenko.
Calderwood, in a post on Instagram, says that she accepted the short notice opportunity after Shevchenko pushed the date of their fight back again due to an ongoing injury:
With this sport you got to be ready for anything..I got word that Valentina pushed the date of her return back again and I made the decision to take a fight. God is good the next day I got offered this one, super excited because I was ready and I am still ready. We all take risks, and the risk waiting till the end of the year or whenever the champ does decide to come back is one I dont want to take. “I’m a peacock, you gotta let me fly!”
UFC Fight Night: Brunson vs. Shahbazyan takes place on Saturday, August 1 from the UFC Apex in Las Vegas, Nevada with Derek Brunson and Edmen Shahbazyan headlining. Fightful is providing live coverage of the event, which streams live on ESPN+.
