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Sixth-ranked women’s strawweight contender Valerie Letourneau (8-4) will face Joanne Calderwood (10-1) in the UFC’s inaugural fight in the women’s flyweight division.
Despite a ten-pound cut down from strawweight (125 lbs), Letourneau believes that flyweight is where she belongs.
“I feel strong and I feel happy, I was feeling strong in Australia too until my very last day but this will make my last 24-hours much easier,” said Letourneau.
“I feel more comfortable at flyweight, that’s for sure.
“This is the weight class I should be fighting at, I’m too small for 125”.
Letourneau’s last fight was a women’s strawweight title bout against Joanna Jedrzejczyk in the co-headliner of UFC 193 at Melbourne’s Ethiad Stadium, in front of a record crowd of 56, 214.
Letourneau entered the bout as a heavy underdog, and despite losing in a unanimous decision in the end, the fight was much more competitive than anybody anticipated. It was an experience that she learned a lot from nonetheless.
“The whole experience was just awesome, the whole training camp, even dealing with all the media,” she said.
“All pressure from being in such a big place, it made he grow as a person.
“After fighting with Joanna, I got back into the gym and realised how much I learned and how much I have improved in that camp.”
Letourneau’s opponent, Calderwood, is now training at her ex-gym, a place where Letourneau crafted her game for ten years.
However, she does not believe Calderwood brings anything too dangerous to the table, and sees multiple ways to win this fight.
“I’ve been working on different things, and I can see many ways that I can finish this fight,” she said.
“She (Calderwood) is really good with her Muay Thai, but now that’s training at Tristar my ex-gym where I was at for 10-years, I can kind of see what her game plan is going to be.”
Valerie Letourneau versus Joanne Calderwood is set to be opening bout of UFC Fight Night 89’s main card. The main card starts at 12:30pm AEST on Sunday, June 19.
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