Jo Jo Calderwood discusses being a part of the Women in Combat Sports Seminar at the UK MMA Expo

Jo Jo Calderwood chats to Kingdom MMA about being a part of the women in combat sports seminar at the UK MMA Expo

by Ben Heather @benheather

The UK MMA Expo is now only a week away. The Expo which is taking place in Manchester will happen the weekend of July 20th -21st. As part of the expo not only will you be able to meet some of the best UK MMA fighters but you can also train with some of them too. For all the details on the expo go to www.ukmmaexpo.co.uk

Kingdom will be bringing you some interviews with these fighters. The fighters will be discussing what they will be doing in each of the seminars and also how they believe the UK MMA Expo can help to promote the sport of MMA in the UK. We all love MMA and know how great a sport it is and hopefully the UK MMA Expo will go a long to to educating more people in the UK. Guys who come along as a casual fan or with a friend who loves MMA and go away wanting to know more about it, watch a live event or even decide that they would like to take it up as a hobby.

Next up in our series of interviews is Jo Jo Calderwood. Jo Jo has fought for some of the top MMA promotions including Cage Warriors and Invicta who she is signed to now on a long term deal. Jo Jo follows on from Rob Sinclair in our interviews discussing the seminar in which she is a part of at the UK MMA Expo.

Jo Jo makes up part of a panel in a seminar called "Women In Combat Sports" which takes place on the 21st July at 2pm. That seminar is free to go and watch and is a one hour Q&A seminar which includes Julie Kitchen 14x World Muay Thai Champ, Helen Currie 1st UK Female BJJ Black belt, Rosi Sexton the first UK women to fight for the UFC and former Cage Warriors Champion and of course Jo Jo Calderwood. Yesterday I asked her how she felt to be part of such a great panel for the seminar.

"I was really excited to be asked, I was going down to it anyway for the British no gi competition so this is like a bonus. I feel privileged to be included in a group with people I look up to like Rosi, Julie Kitchen and Helen Currie."

I know a lot of your UK fans are excited at the prospect of being able to see you at the seminar and potentially meet you too, are you excited about meeting your fans at the expo?

"Yeah everyone back home are really supportive and I'm always very humble to have their support... The UK MMA Expo will be a great experience and my way of getting to say thanks in person to the people."

Finally we spoke about what holding the seminar at the UK MMA Expo means to Jo Jo and how in her opinion the UK MMA Expo is helping the sport of MMA in the UK as well as female fighters.

"Hopefully the UK MMA Expo will open a lot of people's eyes to the real side of UK MMA  its not like how a lot of people perceive it. The last few years the level of professionalism in the sport has been raised thanks to stuff like the safe MMA programme. Hopefully it shows people that MMA is for everyone men, woman and kids and that it's here to stay." 

So that's what Jo Jo Calderwood thinks about being in her seminar as well as her opinion on the UK MMA Expo. Remember Jo Jo is part of the Women in Combat Sports Q&A Seminar on Sunday 21st July at 2pm and as she said she will also be taking part in the no gi competition so anyone going can see her in action on the day.

If you want to read our previous interview with Rob Sinclair about his Striking Against Submissions seminar then click here