Photo by Mike Roach/Zuffa LLC
Another weekend of fisticuffs has come and gone, as UFC on ESPN 10 blew the roof off UFC APEX last Saturday night (June 13, 2020) in Las Vegas, Nevada. Plenty of fighters were left licking their wounds including Mark De La Rosa, who suffered his fourth straight defeat after coming up short against Jordan Espinosa. And Karl Roberson, who was choked out by Marvin Vettori in the first round (see it).
But which fighter is suffering from the worst post-fight hangover, now a few days removed from the show?
Jessica Eye.
Coming into her first-ever headlining bout under the UFC banner, Eye was looking to build on the momentum following her win over Viviane Araujo in hopes of earning her way back into another title fight. Prior to her win over Araujo, “Evil” was knocked out by division queen, Valentina Shevchenko at UFC 238 rather violently.
Unfortunately for Eye, the entire weekend was something I’m positive she’d like to do over. On Friday morning, Eye came missed the 126-pound limit by a quarter of a pound. But as the saying goes, “It don’t matter if you win by an inch...” “It don’t matter if you miss by a quarter of a pound or five pounds, missing weight is missing missing weight.” Speaking of five pounds, that’s how much Jessica missed weight by in her previous bout against Araujo, so back-to-back scale fails didn’t exactly endear her to her colleagues.
Come fight night, Eye simply didn’t put together enough offense against Calvillo, who was making her Flyweight debut. In the end, Cynthia wound up winning a clear-cut unanimous decision, handing Eye her second loss in three fights (highlights).
Eye has had a rather interesting run inside the Octagon so far. Her debut win for the promotion was overturned to a “no contest” after she failed a drug test. Her sophomore effort saw her lose to Alexis Davis before bouncing back with a win over Leslie Smith. From there, “Evil” went on a bit of a slump, losing four straight to some of the best in the game including Miesha Tate and Julianna Pena, which prompted her to drop down to 125 pounds.
She bounced back with three straight wins, which earned her a title shot against Shevchenko. Going 1-1 since then leaves Eye — who is still the No. 1 ranked fighter in the division — in a precarious position. Does she bolt back up to Bantamweight where she went 1-5-1, or does she stay put in a division that, well, let’s face it, isn’t as stacked as the 135-pound division?
If it were up to me, Eye would stay right where she is, as she will likely only lose a spot or two in the rankings after the loss. And who knows, two or three impressive wins could see hr right back into the championship mix. First things first, she needs to get her weight-cutting under control.
As for who she should face next, perhaps a matchup against Andrea Lee is in order. Ranked No. 8, “KGB” has lost two in a row as in desperate need of a win, so she should come in highly-motivated, as should Eye.
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