Joanne Wood’s 17th walk to the octagon was her last as a professional. It might as well have been her first, though, for how she felt in the moments of cutting weight and backstage before the bout.
“This is stupid — this sucks,” she said of her internal monologue on The MMA Hour. “Why do we do this? Every time, it’s terrible. ... You think it would get better, the lead-up. It doesn’t. If anything, it gets worse.”
This past Saturday, Wood closed out a decade-plus career by avenging an earlier loss with a split decision over Maryna Moroz at UFC 299. She made it clear the fight would be her last, and there would be no looking back.
“When you wake up and you’re already tired and sore, it’s just time for the next chapter,” she said. “I have a great life, and I’m just ready to enjoy it.”
Now married to MMA coach John Wood, “Jojo” plans to spend the rest of her days at Syndicate MMA where they train. She’s the mother to Wood’s son from a previous relationship and plans to spend more time with family.
The flyweight UFC vet gets emotional thinking about what it’s cost her to get to this point in her professional and personal life. She found Syndicate after stints in several gyms, including those in her home country of Scotland, went south.
Wood had only just moved to Las Vegas when her entire career was jeopardized by a spike to the canvas at the gym. She didn’t know if she’d be able to move again, let alone fight and be with her future husband.
The decision to retire came easily for Wood, a veteran of Invicta FC who once was in line to fight for the title before an injury forced then-champ Valentina Shevchenko to withdraw from UFC 251. Wood decided not to wait for the champ and suffered a submission loss to Jennifer Maia in her next outing.
“I ain’t a spring chicken anymore, and this is hard, this is hard what we do, training two or three times a day,” Wood said. “The injuries we go through, what we put our bodies and minds through, it isn’t easy, and as you get older, it’s even harder, because you can’t train or as much as when you started. I felt like it was a good time, and go out on a high.”
Wood was transported to the hospital when she passed out backstage after the bout with Maia. Her heart rate dropped precipitously, and she said she “saw the light” in the ambulance. Though she was ultimately OK, she had a “hard think” about whether to continue fighting.
Six fights later, Wood closes her career on a two-fight winning streak. Even the camp for her rematch with Moroz wasn’t trouble-free; she injured her back two weeks beforehand and had to gut out the rest of her work. So hanging up the gloves wasn’t a hard decision.
Wood ends her octagon career with just over a .500 winning percentage at 9-8. She isn’t dwelling on what could have been with Shevchenko.
“There’s a lot I do regret, but I’m not going to live on that,” she said. “I’m happy here in this moment.”
No more agony in the sauna and no more backstage jitters — that’s the present Wood wants to live in.
