Jessica Eye: If they wanted me to fight Ronda Rousey I'm ready
It's been a very long, strange trip for Jessica Eye in the UFC so far.
The Cleveland, Ohio native joined the promotion last year with a lot of hype that she could be a real contender at 135-pounds. She proved to be everything as advertised after beating former Strikeforce champion Sarah Kaufman in her debut.
But then the weird circumstances started following Eye around like a stalker.
Her win against Kaufman was overturned by the Texas Department of Licensing and Regulation when she tested positive for marijuana metabolites. As it turns out, Eye was nearly 10 times under the legal limit for marijuana thresholds according to WADA (World Anti-Doping Agency) standards, but each state can set their own limits and Texas maintains a far lower requirement for a positive test.
The UFC didn't really hold the test result against her and booked Eye for a fight against Alexis Davis in February that was going to likely determine the next No. 1 contender in the division. Eye won the standup battle, but spent the second round stuck under Davis on the ground. Ultimately the judges scored the fight in favor of Davis via split decision.
Eye has been sitting on the sidelines ever since just waiting for the chance to fight again. If anyone was curious how desperate she's been to fight, just ask UFC matchmaker Sean Shelby and UFC president Dana White.
"I told myself around March or April I'm fighting in June. The UFC talked to me about maybe getting something in and then nothing happened and I'm so ready to fight. Throughout the whole summer I texted Sean Shelby and Dana (White) as many times as I could and I was like anytime anyone would fight I would say 'I'll fight them"," Eye told FOX Sports.
"Over the summer I kind of caught some of the Holly Holms talk so I thought perfect timing to kind of push a little bit. So I started sending Sean Shelby those split screen photos of me and Holly saying 'what do you think?". If it had been Holly, if it had been Leslie (Smith), had it been Ronda (Rousey), had it been Cat (Zingano), it didn't matter. I don't care who I fight. I'm so freaking hungry, I'm starved and I'm just ready."
For a while, Eye was just begging for some fighter -- any fighter -- to call her out on Twitter just to get the UFC interested. When that didn't happen, Eye started pushing her own agenda to land a fight with multi-time boxing champion Holy Holm, who signed with the UFC earlier this year.
Ultimately, Holm got booked for a different fight (before withdrawing this week due to injury), but Eye is fairly certain she knows why she didn't get the call.
"I'm too much for Holly Holm," Eye said. "They know that I'm a smart enough fighter that I would out strike her and I could also out grapple her. I think I'm a better fighter. I know a lot of people in the boxing circuit and I know a lot of people she fought and people that trained her and lets just say I know people that used to train with her that made me feel really good about myself."
The call finally came several weeks ago when the UFC offered Eye a fight against Leslie Smith for the UFC 180 fight card this Saturday in Mexico. Eye couldn't say yes fast enough. Stylistically this is a more favorable matchup for Eye, especially after dealing with a wrestler and grappler like Alexis Davis in her last fight.
"Alexis didn't hurt me in that fight. There was not one time in that fight where Alexis hurt me. In my opinion, I had a top level grappler on top of me just holding me down. That's what she did, she held me there, she didn't do anything. Because she was more nervous about what I would do to her if I had space," Eye explained.
"With a girl like Leslie I know she's a great striker, I know she's at a great jiu-jitsu camp, I know she works with good wrestlers. At this point with all the women in the sport at the top 10, we're all awesome. I have to be prepared for wherever this fight goes. I have to be prepared for it to end in the first 10 seconds and I have to be prepared for it to go down to the last minute and it goes to the judges' decision."
If everything goes well this weekend, Eye is ready to jump right back into competition because sitting out is never her plan. Whether she lands the fight with Holm next or UFC champion Ronda Rousey, it doesn't much to the 28-year old from Ohio.
With the proper mindset and team behind her, Eye knows there's not a challenge in the bantamweight division she can't conquer.
"I want to fight every single female in the UFC," Eye said. "If they wanted me to fight Ronda now, I'm ready now. I'm in a completely different state of mind. No matter what, I believe right now. Ronda Rousey might be the reason why we're all here, but there's a purpose and I'm the purpose."
