We only watched the UFC men’s flyweight title defended by Henry Cejudo with his TKO win over TJ Dillashaw within last weekend in UFC on ESPN+ 1, and now it loooks like the women’s flyweight title is going to be defended shortly, as well.
Based on UFC president Dana White, who spoke to reporters after the UFC’s debut event on ESPN in Brooklyn, New York, the world’s top MMA organization is set to give Jessica Eye another title shot at 125lbs. She’ll take on UFC women’s flyweight champion Valentina Shevchenko for its name later this season, though White didn’t state when the belt could be defended. Together with the UFC running three or four cards a month up until June, the promotion had a great deal of holes to fill and Shevchenko vs. Eye makes sense as a principal event for a Fight Night card on ESPN+, or maybe even as a co-main occasion for a pay-per-view.
White told reporters concerning Eye getting another title shot after somebody asked him if Joanne Calderwood — who called Eye out after her decision win over Ariane Lipski — was in line to fight for the name. There were rumors Eye was likely to be next for Shevchenko since they both fought on the exact same UFC 231 card, and we understand that’s really the case.
Eye (14-6, 1 NC) has rescued her career by making the movement down to flyweight. After struggling with a 1-5, 1 NC record for a bantamweight, Eye is currently 3-0 at 125lbs. She’s defeated Kalindra Faria, Jessica-Rose Clark and Katlyn Chookagian in her last three outings so as to get the title shot in the UFC’s newest division. The fact she has gone the distance in eight of her 10 UFC struggles is about going up against a finisher such as Shevchenko who probably has to be halted in order to conquer, but Eye has definitely looked enhanced at flyweight and her getting another title shot is logical.
Shevchenko (16-3) needed a 4-2 record as a bantamweight in the UFC, but her two losses came against winner Amanda Nunes and she needed to make a move down in weight in order to find another title shot. Moving down to 125lbs has proven to be a great move for her since she destroyed Priscila Cachoeira in her UFC flyweight debut to get a title shot, then defeat Joanna Jedrzejczyk at UFC 231 to claim the vacant belt. Outside of the Nunes fights, Shevchenko has appeared unstoppable from the Octagon, and it’s hard to see anyone at 125lbs giving her much of a fight when she’s so far beyond everybody in the branch so far as skill goes.
Clearly this fight is not 100 percent official yet, but it appears likely to be officially announced shortly, and when it does the oddsmakers should not have much trouble lining the fight. I’m fully expecting Shevchenko to be a massive favorite however again, opening at least around -500 and possibly being steamed even greater. Shevchenko always receives a tremendous amount of aid from bettors while Eye traditionally doesnt get much of any, so this is not a difficult fight to line. As good as Eye has looked in her recent couple of fights since falling down from bantamweight, it’s hard to see her being the fighter to shoot Shevchenko’s belt.
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