Jessica Eye and Paige VanZant were set to make their flyweight division debuts at UFC 216, but then VanZant suffered a myriad of injuries and the fight was called off.
Since then, the two have gone their separate ways, but now Eye is claiming PVZ used her connections with UFC President Dana White to avoid both UFC 216 and any potential future bout.
“Because Paige called Dana and asked to get out of the fight,” Eye said on The MMA Hour. “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.”
Eye will now be facing Kalindra Faria at UFC Fight Night St. Louis, while PVZ competes on the same card against Jessica-Rose Clark.
The female fighter also believes that is the bout with PVZ would come together again, then PVZ would fake an injury to get out of it.
“She would have faked some kind of injury or found some other way to get out of that fight or whatever, who knows what would have happened?” Eye said. “It’s not the UFC’s fault, I think it’s bulls**t that she’s trying to act like it’s the UFC’s fault. It was her thing. She was the one who went back and said that she didn’t want the fight, out of nowhere. … In my world, like in most people’s world, if you make a fight, that fight should happen. You don’t get to just choose that, you don’t get to just be the dictator of that.”
UFC Fight Night St. Louis takes place on Sunday, January 14 from the Scottrade Center in St. Louis, Missouri with no main event announced at this time. Fightful is providing live coverage of the event, which airs live on Fox Sports 1.
