UFC Fighter Teases Retirement: 'I'm Getting Old'

By Brian Jones

A UFC star is opening up about her career possibly ending. Joanne Wood recently appeared on The MMA Hour and talked about her return to the octagon as they will face Luana Carolina at UFC 286 in London on Saturday. This will be her first match since losing to Alexa Grasso in March of 2022, and she knows that she doesn't have too many fights left before she retires. 

"I've probably only got another year or two in the sport," Wood said, per MMA Fighting. "We'll see what happens in this next year. I'm getting old. I'm an old lady." Wood just turned 37 and has lost her last three UFC fights. When talking about the loss to Grasso, Wood said she competed while dealing with an injury. 

"The last fight with Grasso, I tore my quad two weeks before that fight," Wood revealed. "Then before that, I injured my finger so I was just like I was wanting to stay active because staying active is great when you're winning or when you're body's feeling good.

"So I just felt this isn't going my way so maybe I need to take some time out and get my body back to feeling somewhat normal. We'll always have those little nagging injuries but for what we do, we should be going in there at, at least 90 percent would be good." 

Wood, who has a 25-15 mixed martial arts record, also revealed how many fights she has remaining before her contract is up. But she is not setting a retirement date. "It was really tough and then you've got the whole I'm getting older," Wood said. "I've only got two more fights on my contract. Back then, I was rushing things because I felt like I wanted to have a family and everyone around me are retiring so that pressure as well. I put that pressure on myself to stay active and just keep fighting.

"Like I said before, that's all good if your body's holding up but I should have been wiser and I don't know why after so long fighting and being in this game, that I'm not. I guess it's just the fighter mentality. You just think it's going to be OK, I'm going to win, everything's going to be dandy. But at the end of the day, now I'm not young. I can't be dumb and just do it anyway."

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