Joanne Wood Record: 17-8-0

UFC career

On the TUF 20 cast, Wood beat Emily Kagan in the quarterfinals before running into Rose Namajunas, who submitted her by kimura in the second round — a setback that exposed the grappling gaps she would spend years closing. She rebounded at the TUF 20 Finale in December 2014 with a unanimous-decision win over the dangerous Seo Hee Ham. The next stretch was a grind: a 2015 armbar loss to Maryna Moroz was followed by a bounce-back decision over Cortney Casey, but submission losses to Jéssica Andrade in 2016 and a decision defeat to Cynthia Calvillo in 2017 underlined the same theme.

Moving up to flyweight revitalized her. She opened the new chapter with a first-round triangle armbar of veteran Kalindra Faria in 2018, then beat Ariane Lipski da Silva and edged Andrea Lee by split decision in 2019, sandwiched around a loss to Katlyn Cerminara. The wins pushed her toward the title picture, but a 2020 armbar loss to Jennifer Maia stalled that momentum. She answered with a clear decision over Jessica Eye in early 2021, before a rough run of three straight defeats — a split call to Lauren Murphy, a submission to Taila Santos, and a submission to Alexa Grasso, who would go on to win the flyweight title. Wood steadied herself with a 2023 split-decision win over Luana Carolina and, in March 2024, avenged her old loss to Moroz with a split-decision win at UFC 299.

Fighting style

Wood is a striker first, and the numbers reflect it: of her 17 wins, five came by knockout and 11 by decision, against just one submission victory, for a 35% finish rate. Her Muay Thai base gives her clean, varied striking and a high output, and she is most comfortable controlling distance and piecing opponents up over three rounds. The honest weakness across her career has been grappling — five of her eight losses came by submission — but her move to flyweight and steady improvement on the mat extended her run against world-class competition deep into her thirties.

Career highlights

• Muay Thai-to-MMA pioneer — one of the first Scottish women to break through in the UFC, she carried a decorated kickboxing pedigree into a long top-tier MMA career.
• TUF 20 contender — earned a spot on the landmark all-women's season and beat Seo Hee Ham at the finale to launch her UFC run.
• Avenged a career loss — turned the tables on Maryna Moroz at UFC 299 in 2024, nearly a decade after their first meeting.