An Eye on Immediate Vindication

UFC on ESPN 10 was a night Jessica Eye will look to forget. In a main event slot against Cynthia Calvillo, she was often unable to counter the wrestling talents of the former strawweight at key moments in the bout. However, she will have an immediate chance at vindication this Sunday at Submission Underground 15. Where she hopes to display the work she put in during her fight camp against SUG veteran and Brazilian jiu-jitsu black belt Amanda Loewen.

“I didn’t perform great, but that doesn’t mean that I’m not great. I’m a purple belt. I’m still working on things for myself and I’m excited to go out there and perform. We really did work on my grappling [in camp], and I’m mad that we didn’t get to showcase some of the things we did, but this is how we fix it. This is how you get better at this stuff. And I’m super excited we had this plan well ahead of time. We’re still in a pandemic. There’s not going to be fans there. My coach has to warm me up in the back, and he can’t even be in the arena. So again, another adjustment. Maybe this will be a good time for me to be like, ‘alright Jes, trust yourself.’ Because sometimes in there, you’ve got to learn to listen to that inner voice that knows stuff.”

Along with looking ahead to her second appearance for the grappling promotion, Eye also talked to Sherdog about her loss last Saturday, as well as missing weight, the difficult cut before the fight and her technical failings in the bout. She also explained the recent truce between her Calvillo, following comments made by her former foe at the events post-fight press conference. Plus, she gave her opinion on how the problems between the two may have been caused by Calvillo’s manager.