“This is No.1 contender fight,” Lauren Murphy and Joanne Calderwood hope for a title shot at UFC 263


“This is No.1 contender fight,” Lauren Murphy and Joanne Calderwood hope for a title shot at UFC 263

Lauren Murphy vs Joanne Calderwood

The UFC 263 event is so packed with amazing bouts that a No.1 contender fight between Lauren Murphy and Joanne Calderwood had to be on the preliminary card. Both the fighters are not too optimistic about the title shot though.

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Lauren Murphy and Joanne Calderwood are preparing to face each other this weekend. Lauren has a record of 14-4-0 and Joanne 15-5-0. Both the fighters have been on a great run to deserve the title shot. Murphy is on a four-fight consecutive winning streak and has not lost since 2018. Meanwhile, Joanne is coming off a recent victory against Jessica Eye at UFC 257 via decision.

On Wednesday, the UFC 263 media scrum went down and both the fighters had their say about the fights and their future in the UFC women’s flyweight division. “I would love to say it’s a No. 1 contender fight,” Murphy said on Wednesday. “I would like to say that, but I also know in this sport anything could happen. I could win this fight but come out with such an injury that maybe I’m sitting on the shelf for nine months, or maybe I win this fight, and Valentina gets injured. That’s what happened to ‘Jojo’ [Calderwood]. She was lined up for the title and the champion got injured. It was totally outside her control.”

Joanne Calderwood is not looking past Lauren Murphy

Lauren Murphy UFC 263
Lauren Murphy

Meanwhile, Joanne Calderwood is ready to do anything to get a shot at the title. Both the fighters are determined to face Valentina Shevchenko in their next fight. But Joanne also understands that Lauren is her main priority. “I’m ready for anything,” Calderwood said about the title picture at flyweight. At this point, the division is looking for someone who can beat Shevchenko and these two are on that long list.

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“Not seeing past Lauren this Saturday. Obviously, that’s my No. 1 goal and concern right now but yeah, this is why I’m here. I want to fight. I want to keep fighting and stay active and luckily enough we have a champion in our division that wants to stay active, she wants to fight all of us. That’s great for me,” said Calderwood. “We’re just going to go in there and hit each other and we’re going to come out looking like lobsters. With blood or just our skin being pink.”

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