Luana Carolina’s Time Well Spent

Luana Carolina wanted to fight, but her body needed to mend.

The 29-year-old Brazilian will return to the Ultimate Fighting Championship after an extended layoff when she meets Joanne Wood as part of the UFC 286 undercard this Saturday at the O2 Arena in London. Carolina, who owns a 3-2 record across five appearances inside the Octagon, has been sidelined with a concussion for nearly a year.

“I had to undergo medical treatment,” Carolina told Sherdog.com. “I’ve been working with the same physiotherapist for all my UFC bouts. After that, I returned to regular training. As soon as I was medically cleared, we notified the UFC and they booked me again. I would have fought sooner, but I needed to be medically cleared to fight first. I kept training until that happened.”

Carolina expects to be at full strength when she faces Wood.

“Today, I’m 100%,” she said. “After all that happened, I put in a lot of training time. I trained without a specific strategic focus. I trained with the purpose of improving what needed to be better. I managed to evolve more during this time away from the Octagon. I’m very happy that I had the time to get better. I’ll be showing that in the cage.”

Back in circulation at 125 pounds, Carolina seeks to bolster her resume in the UFC. She has not competed since being knocked out by a spinning back elbow from Molly McCann at UFC Fight Night 204 on March 19, 2022. The setback snapped a modest winning streak for Carolina, who had beaten Poliana Botelho and Lupita Godinez in her two previous outings.

“The level in the UFC is high,” she said. “There are no easy fights, so in every fight, we learn something, whether we win or lose. We’re always learning and evolving.”

Wood, 37, does not figure to provide anything resembling a soft landing for the returning Brazilian. The Syndicate MMA rep enters the cage on the heels of back-to-back-to-back losses to Lauren Murphy, Taila Santos and Alexa Grasso. An Irvine, Scotland, native, Wood figures to be greeted by a pro-United Kingdom crowd. Carolina focuses on what she can control.

“To be the favorite or not doesn’t matter much to me, to be honest,” she said. “I see fights as a 50/50 chance. Regardless of the geographical location, once we’re in the cage, it’s only one woman against another. Fans don’t get to fight. Of course, it’s cool to fight in your own country with fans rooting for you, but ultimately, preparation is what matters.”

Carolina plans to factor into the women’s flyweight equation moving forward.

“My focus now is to showcase all my areas of improvement inside the Octagon,” she said. “I want to show the UFC who I truly am.”