UFC on ESPN 10: Eye vs. Calvillo
Saturday, June 13 – UFC Apex Facility, Las Vegas, Nevada
This is the second week in a row that the women of UFC have been put in the headling spot on the card. Last week it was Amanda Nunes beating Felecia Spencer to retain her Featherweight title and this week we see Cynthia Calvillo (8-1-1) Taking on Jessica Eye (15-7-1).
Calvillo is a fighter that is still working on bouncing back from a nine months drug ban that almost derailed her MMA career. She came back from that suspension with a couple of nice wins before a majority-draw last time out against Marina Rodriguez. She currently sits just outside of the Top 15 in the division but she has the skills to work her way quickly up those rankings.
That climb back to relevance would be boosted by a win over one of the top fighters in the division in Eye. Eye is 4-1 in her last five fights, though she again failed to make the Flyweight limit here suggesting a change in tactics might be needed in the future.
The co-main event of the card sees a couple of fighters clashing who have been building up their fight for a couple of months. Marvin Vettori and Karl Roberson were supposed to throw hands at UFC Fight Night 173 in April, but the Coronavirus crisis put those plans on hold. The bout was rescheduled for UFC 249, but Roberson failed to make weight and was diagnosed with rhabdomyolysis.
These two just don’t like each other. Roberson actually missed weight for the second time in this feud, but this time the fight is set to go ahead. This is probably for the best after the pair almost threw down at the host hotel in Jacksonville, Florida in the middle of May after Vettori found out Roberson had missed weight for the first time.
The rest of the card is a little underwhelming, but that is really to be expected in the Covid-19 era where fighters are struggling to get visas issued and travel to compete on big cards. The result is that this particular event will feature plenty of new and up and coming fighters who are looking to make a name for themselves in the UFC arena.
Fighters on the card with limited experience include 23-year old Maruya Agapova in a Flyweight bout against Hannah Cifers, former GLORY kickboxer Zarrukh Adashev – who event 3-0 in Bellator with his striking ability – who will take on Tyson Nam, and a couple of potential future stars in Christian Aguilera fighting Anthony Ivy.
The main event is a virtual pick-em at this point. Eye started as the favourite but had some serious issues to get as close to making weight as she did and there is some worry her power and conditioning will have suffered as a result. Eye is the pick here at 1.06 with BetXChange in a fight that I expect to go the distance with the bigger fighter using her size to bully Calvillo and match her volume with cleaner strikes.
