Jessica Eye thinks Paige VanZant is scared.
Jessica “Evil” Eye is scheduled fight Kalindra Faria at UFC St. Louis on Jan. 14. But the Faria matchup was made only came about after a few failed attempts to face young star Paige VanZant.
On The MMA Hour on VanZant announced that she will also fight on Jan. 14 against an opponent to be determined, and addressed the missed matchups with Eye.
“I know that originally me and her were supposed to fight and that I ended up getting hurt, then they tried to get that fight matched up again, but at that point the UFC had moved on and they were trying to get me on the Australia card,” VanZant said. “They asked me when Anderson Silva ended up not being on the Shanghai card, they asked if I would take a last-minute fight. They asked me ten days or maybe two weeks before the fight if I would take a short-notice fight in Shanghai, so this whole time I thought I was going to be jumping in for a short-notice fight because I got ready really quickly and after my back healed I had this itch to get back in the cage right away.”
Eye also appeared on the The MMA Hour and gave her own reason for the two not fighting:
“Because Paige called Dana and asked to get out of the fight. They were not gonna let her out of this fight and she – whatever bitch fit she threw, I signed that contract, I signed that one October 18 I think… I got the contract signed and returned it that day for that one. I have the other signed contract that we sent back for the other fight and for the other time. Listen, I’m not here saying that maybe two different things weren’t being said, but we all know that the UFC does not send contracts to people unless both parties agreed upon wanting the fight and said yes to everything.
“That went out and then it was like New York weekend (UFC 217) happened and all of a sudden she came home and realized, ‘Oh, wait a minute, Jessica is one of the best 125ers and she can kick my ass. So now I don’t want this fight, I would much rather go fight a girl that Bec (Rawlings) lost to,’ because she beat Bec. Which is fine. It’s totally fine but we’ve been trying to get myself a fight. I haven’t been in the cage, I’ve been begging for 125 and we revolved all of our decision making because Paige was being cooperative. And then one day I think I have a fight coming up, the next day I don’t. It’s not fair for her to do that.”
VanZant has been heavily favored by the UFC officials since her introduction in 2014. They young star has headlined a Fight Night and a UFC on FOX card and parlayed her image into commercials, appearances on reality show competitions, and a book deal. Eye thinks that the UFC may be protecting her:
“There’s so many things that are going on and I think that sometimes with the media you guys pick up on the things Paige says because you’re right, she’s got other things to talk about, she’s doing some outside-of-the-cage stuff so everybody always seems to believe that person and not the other side,” Eye said. “It’s like me and Valentina (Shevchenko), who are the best ‘25ers in the world, and that was before we even came to the UFC, so I feel like we’re both kind of getting shunted aside and not getting a chance and Paige is just getting all this time to talk.”
“There’s no reason to talk now,” she said. “I’ll get my chance and set myself straight back in the 125 division, a division that I should have been in years ago that I ruled for multiple years before I even came to the UFC, and I’ll see her on the other side of the cage. And it’ll be a bad day for her in that case.”
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