Jessica Eye was one of three fighters to miss weight ahead of Saturday’s UFC Fight Night, with a fourth bowing out before the weigh-in on Friday.
Eye, a women’s flyweight contender, came in at 126.25 pounds — a quarter-pound over the limit — for her scheduled main event against Cynthia Calvillo.
Calvillo weighed in successfully at 126 pounds.
When Eye got off the scale, she said she was done cutting weight and didn’t even know if she could stand up. The headliner, set for Saturday night in front of no fans at the UFC Apex in Las Vegas, is expected to go on, with Eye forfeiting 25% of her purse to Calvillo. Eye missed weight by 5 pounds ahead of her December fight with Viviane Araujo.
Karl Roberson missed weight by 4.5 pounds for the co-main event, coming in at 190.5 pounds for the scheduled middleweight (185) bout. His opponent is Marvin Vettori. The bout is expected to go on with Roberson forfeiting 30% of his purse to Vettori.
The two were supposed to fight May 13, but Roberson missed weight by 1.5 pounds and then withdrew when he had to go to the hospital due to a weight-cut-related illness. Vettori and Roberson had a heated argument caught on video the next day at the hotel and had to be separated.
Zarrukh Adashev also missed weight by 2.5 pounds, coming in for a bantamweight fight at 138.5 pounds. His scheduled opponent, Tyson Nam, weighed in at 135.5 pounds. The bout is expected to go on with Adashev forfeiting 20% of his purse to Nam.
A scheduled featherweight fight between Darrick Minner and Jordan Griffin was canceled Friday morning. Minner announced on his Twitter that he fell ill during the weight-cutting process, writing his “body couldn’t make this happen.” The card will move forward with 10 bouts.
This is only the sixth UFC event since 2006 that three or more fighters missed weight. The last time UFC fighters missed weight in both the main and co-main event fights was UFC Fight Night: Lineker vs. Dodson in October 2016, according to ESPN Stats & Info. John Lineker missed weight in the headliner and Alex Oliveira blew weight in the co-main event.
ESPN has Eye ranked No. 6 among women’s flyweight MMA fighters. Calvillo is making her debut at flyweight after fighting at strawweight (115 pounds) previously. Eye spent most of her UFC career at bantamweight (135 pounds) before moving down to flyweight in 2018.
Eye (15-7, 1 NC) is coming off a unanimous decision win over Araujo at UFC 245 last December. The Ohio native, who lives and trains in Las Vegas, has won four of her last five fights. The lone loss for Eye, 33, during that stretch was a second-round head-kick loss to flyweight champion Valentina Shevchenko at UFC 238 in June 2019.
Calvillo (8-1-1) is unbeaten in her last three fights. She missed weight three times at strawweight, causing her to move up to flyweight. The California native is coming off a majority draw against Marina Rodriguez in December. Calvillo, 32, recently moved from Team Alpha Male to American Kickboxing Academy, the home of UFC luminaries Khabib Nurmagomedov and Daniel Cormier.