Oct 28, 2015
VanZant to face Namajunas at Fight Night 80
When Paige VanZant makes her highly anticipated return to the Octagon she will be facing Rose Namajunas, who has replaced the injured Joanne Calderwood in the main event of UFC Fight Night 80, UFC president Dana White announced on Wednesday.
TSN.ca Staff
When Paige VanZant makes her highly anticipated return to the Octagon she will be facing Rose Namajunas, who has replaced the injured Joanne Calderwood in the main event of UFC Fight Night 80, UFC president Dana White announced on Wednesday.
Namajunas last saw action at UFC 192 when she defeated Angela Hill via technical submission due to a standing rear-naked choke in the first round. She currently holds a 3-2 overall MMA record and is 1-1 in the UFC, having dropped the inaugural women’s strawweight title fight to Carla Esparza.
VanZant has won all three of her UFC fights since making her promotional debut in November of 2014. Her most recent success was a third round, armbar submission victory over Alex Chambers at UFC 191.
Calderwood, who was forced from the fight with a knee injury, posted the following message on Facebook on Thursday:
"Just to let everyone know that I'm okay. Everything was going great but I hurt my knee during wrestling last week and I haven't been able to train since and we reckon it's going to be another week before I can get back to light training which obviously isn't idea in this stage of my camp. As much as I'm gutted I'm just glad that it's nothing too serious and that I'm only going to be out for a few weeks hopefully.
I wanted the just strap it up and hit her with it idea, but in this sport things like this happen and I want to make sure I can come back from this little hurdle sensibly and with a vengeance.
Thank you so much for all the messages, well wishes and concerns."