Four months is double what a normal fight camp usually lasts, but the last two years of #9 ranked UFC women’s flyweight, Alexa Grasso (13-3) has been anything but normal. With three cancelled fights in 2020 and 2021, Grasso will get one of those back this Saturday night in the co-main event of UFC Fight Night: Blaydes vs Daukaus where she will face #7 ranked, Joanne Wood (formerly Calderwood) (15-7). “I feel great right now,” said Grasso. “I’m so happy to be here and I’m enjoying this fight week. I’m ready. I’ve been training so long for this fight.”
Grasso and Wood were scheduled to fight last November, but Grasso had to withdraw from the fight. She was booked to fight Viviane Araujo in January, but Araujo was injured so the fight was scrapped all together. The switch in tide of fight camps may give Grasso the upper hand for this fight though. “Of course, we changed the gameplan because after JoJo we had another offer to fight another girl and it was completely a different style of hers,” explained Grasso. “I feel like I added more things, because the other girl was a grappler and doing some take downs, JoJo does not do that a lot but I’m expecting the best version of her because she is also dangerous and has a lot of experience.”
After a slow start in organization, some might say that the summer of 2019 was Grasso’s true coming out party for the UFC. Her dominant win over Karolina Kowalkiewicz at UFC 238 in Chicago showcased just how talented she was and why the UFC was so big on bringing her to the UFC from Invicta FC. Grasso agrees and would like that version of herself to come out again this upcoming weekend. “I feel like there are two Alexa’s,” said Grasso. “One before that fight in Chicago and one after that fight in Chicago, so I’m really happy that I’ve finally achieved two wins in a row and I’m committed with myself and my coaches to keep winning.”
With Mexico still on her radar to return to fight one day, Grasso is just happy to be back and wants to show those watching that she is still hungry to put her stamp in her new division and add one more notch to her win streak this weekend. “I hope that this year I can be more active,” said Grasso. “Like I said, I’d love to fight in Mexico City and I would like to be sent to Abu Dhabi if possible, but I want people to remember this fight and remember me as a fighter because I always go forward, I always go to the front, I keep my technique sharp and I give my heart in every single fight.”
Photo credit: **courtesy of ZUFFA, LLC and Getty Images
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