MMA Fighting - Jessica Eye Addresses Her Loss, Weight Cut Issues and Claims Made by Cynthia Calvillo

Episode Date: June 15, 2020

UFC flyweight Jessica Eye addresses her main event loss, weight cut issues and claims made by Cynthia Calvillo following UFC on ESPN 10 at UFC Apex in Las Vegas. Nevada. #UFCVegas2    Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

You're listening to the Vox Media Podcast Network. Damon Martin MMA fighting here with Jessica I. A couple days after UFC on ESPN10, I think I got that number correctly. Jess, how is everything out in Vegas? It's great, man. It's definitely nice. I'm glad that the weather's nice. It helps making getting over a loss much better when the weather's beautiful.

Yeah. Now, I know they didn't bring you back for the post-fight press, after the fight. And, you know, I know a lot of fighters, you know, they like to, you know, I always say face the music is the wrong word, but, you know, they like to answer questions. They're not hiding from the cameras. They're not hiding from the microphones. And I know you post on Instagram. So he has never got a chance to talk, so I wanted to talk to you about it. So here we sit a couple days after the fight. Kind of give me your thoughts on everything, how it played out on Saturday night. Oh, man. I'm obviously, I'm a rush of emotion. There's obviously

a lot, you know, I'm highly disappointed that I didn't win. I'm highly disappointed by my performance. But I'm extremely, you know, proud of Cynthia. I mean, she showed up. She came. She did an incredible job. And, you know, I'm excited for the opportunity. The way cut was terrible.

Again, I really, really, really tried hard. I can't pinpoint exactly what it was. I'm not feeding it all the bullshit everyone wants to say and everyone what they think they want to know. I definitely didn't feel good going into the flight. I could definitely tell that I was shaking a little bit reserved from it. But I mean, there's no excuse, you know, like Cynthia did a great job. She was timing all my kicks.

You know, one of the things that she said to Eric, as soon as she got in the cage, is that she was like, I heard everything you were saying and I know your system. And she knows the Elaine system, so, which is, you know, what we use and what was been the new ad to my training. So I feel like she did a very good job of knowing what I was going to do. Yeah. Did anything, I mean, in terms of like, obviously it ended up being a very wrestling,

heavy performance, which, you know, she has a very good grappler. Did any of that surprise you, or was it just a matter of she just did a good job executing her game plan? Yeah, she did a great job executing her game plan. I didn't overthrow the right hand. She wasn't getting her take down from over. thrown right hand. She was getting them from kicks that we were using

and needs that we were throwing. So, I mean, that was a misjudgment on me and something that I, you know, need to fix and something I should have made adjustment on the fly while I was there. But she did a great job. I mean, she wasn't strong. I mean, I really thought

her was going to hold us. I mean, I should have asked that in the back, but I thought that by neutralizing her when we were on the ground, we would get the stand up and I could continue to beat her up like I was with my hands because I know my shots were hitting harder. I could see them. You know, I could tell that my shots were harder than hers.

Hers was, you know, in that way. But again, you know, like I didn't put the pedal down. I definitely didn't do some of the things that I probably should have. But it's also the first time I ever taken a short notice, you know, fight. I said I would never do it. And I did during probably one of the craziest times in the world. And I mean, to be honest, well, everybody's criticizing me for the things I did. I'm proud of me for the things I did do.

So it's like I'm, I'm okay with it. You know, like I still got paid, you know, I still was able to make some money. This is something I do for fun, and I won't let anything take that away from me. You know, like I enjoyed the good and the bad of the fight week. Yeah. That's what I can take of that, you know. Yeah, absolutely. Kind of walk me through it because obviously in a five-round fight, you get, you know, time between rounds.

in quarters. And you mentioned that Cynthia talked about after the fight that she recognized some of the codes, some of the things your coaches were calling for because she knows that system. How was that working with the team? Do you feel like that played a factor into the fight that she did know your coaches and she did know what they were saying, what they were calling for during the fight?

Again, not making excuses, but do you feel like that did help her in a way? Yeah. I mean, of course it did. Her corner didn't talk the entire time. It was into my corner the entire time. And that's And that's one of the things to take into consideration when you're fighting in these empty arenas. You know, like they heard everything in Eric and Darren are very loud, you know, and what normally would persuade the judge in a loud arena, you know, it's going to persuade him differently in a quiet arena.

So I don't think it was a unanimous decision. I definitely thought it was a split. I felt like I, again, she won by the taketown. Tickdowns win fight. We have no regular judging system. So there's nothing like, even if I hit the person, and more times in the body or up and down and showcase. Like, you know, if she takes me down, you know, like, so there's no judging system, right?

Like, if I control the center, if we say, hey, controlling the center wins a fighter, take downs to win fight. Like, there's all these different things. So it's like I never really know what wins it, but this particular time with a teakown one fight. If I had been in reverse, I would have, like, if those in averse, I would have said the same thing, like take downs one fight. if that was me doing all the take to them. Yeah. Obviously, she mentioned your coaches, you know,

being very vocal, you know, during the fight. And, you know, listen, I understand, like, I've been in arenas where a loud crowd, I think a loud crowd has influenced judging before when a fighter throws a big punch. And when they miss it, the crowd reacting, I think that does play a part sometime. But what did you make in that whole situation?

Because your coaches were very vocal, but I guess they're kind of supposed to be vocal, right? Yeah, you know, I mean, look, it's such a, crazy freaking time. Who knows if it would have been different if we've been in a big arena, and who knows if it would or wouldn't have. You know, so, like, I, to know, to know that I, it could have, it could or couldn't, you know what I mean?

We've seen it go both ways. And again, I think this time, like, she did her very best. She listened, and they listened to that. And, you know, kudos to them, man. Kudos to them. They did, they did a good job. Now, you mentioned, of course, the weight cut. you know, that happened.

And going into the fight, you know, you were very confident about your weight. You felt good about it. Even on Media Day, you mentioned it. You felt good about it. Sometimes you can't explain exactly what went wrong, but was that just pretty much it? Did your body just shut down? I don't, it's not, like, I, to be honest, like, I went into the cut, you know, less than 10 pounds, less than 10 pounds over. You know what I mean?

So, like, I went into the cut being okay. You know what I mean? There wasn't anything. but like I don't know I've been the last couple of times I'm getting to the last two three pounds and I'm and it's getting harder and also it didn't help that I took the fight on three weeks notice and you know like that that plays a difference in a lot of these things you know I mean making weight is hard nobody like I don't I really don't like get offended by people who have never cut weight in their life and truly understand it and like I mean I'm not a bad eater

I eat very clean in my, and even in my off season, like I'm not, I'm not one of those people that eat fast foods and stuff like that. It's just a small couple pound difference. I did water load this time. I'm very proud of all the work that I did. So it's like, I don't really know. I don't know really where to put it on outside of it was three weeks notice. We did a really good job. It was a couple pounds off and it's really it.

Yeah. I pay for that. regardless of what anybody else says they pay us to make weight that's why they take a part of our show money they the fighting is is the fun part so like for me that i pay my dues where i have to i really don't like it's not something i'm like hey man i want to go out there and miss wait like hey i want to go i want to go give people a reason to stay crappy things about me like that's it's never the the plan you know what you mean and we were on trap we really were I really can't put exactly down what happened.

Yeah. After the fight, I'm sure you've seen it, Jess, in the aftermath of that, Cynthia said that she didn't buy that you were actually only 0.25 over. She felt like you held the towel and you were actually more over than 0.25 pounds. So I'll give you the open forum here. What exactly happened? What did you weigh? Like, what is your response to that accusation? I weighed what I weighed and what everybody saw.

Like, I'm not going to go into arguing with a million people about things that they, think that they saw or that this and that like I'm just not going to give anybody the fucking arguments that they want you know what you mean like everyone's seen what they've seen and that's it I'm not going to go into like he said bullshit because nobody has anything else to talk

about the fight's over with the weight's over with like that's I'm not going to go into I'm not going to fight with Jojo I'm not going to fight with these people over minuscule shit that really doesn't mean anything that really has nothing like has nothing to do with them. But you mentioned...

Really what it boils down to is Danny Rubstein being shady and saying things he shouldn't be and why he called my coach Eric Nixick apologizing. So, I mean, this goes down to more to managers in this sport being dirty and people in the industry talking. That's really what it is. Yeah.

And Dan... In the M.A world's small. And some of these managers, and manage a lot of people at the same gym that are fighting each other and fighting people from the same area. Nobody has each other's back at all. Yeah, and to be clear, Danny Rubinstein is Cynthia's manager.

Just to put that out of it, make sure everyone understands that. Yeah. So that's where, that's, that's why you're not going to get in the back and forth. That's really what it comes down to. Yeah, it's, yeah, absolutely. And he called Eric Mixick yesterday to apologize. and about the words that Cynthia and him said. So, I mean, I'm going to let those guys do it.

I'm going to let those guys do it out because it says nothing. I just don't want to get into it. It's stupid. To argue with people over my weight, over money that I'm going to miss, over things that people don't understand. Like, I just, I don't have the energy, let alone the time to even do it. And I much other let people think what they want of me or say things. Like, it's really not that.

big of a deal. Yeah. Now to that point in the aftermath, because of the whole he said, she said, thing, do you hold, like, do you have any ill will towards Cynthia because the way the whole thing played out, or do you just kind of move past it? No, it's whatever. I mean, I don't care. Like, look, I loved fighting. I smiled throughout all that. I smiled afterwards. Like, I had a good time. I had a good time fighting her. I had a great time. It was a fun fight. It was fun. I had fun. I had fun. And I had enough fun that, I had enough fun that right now, I can't wait to go do my grappling match this weekend and still have fun competing, even if it means that, you know, I lost this past weekend and I'm not, I don't have, I never have any bad blood

with these girls. That's why these girls try to start to start shit with me over, like, miniscule stuff, is because they're irrelevant. They have nothing else in life to pay attention to. You know, like, Cynthia, I hope her nothing the best. I hope she goes on and takes on the division and does great things. I hope she goes back and beats Jojo, just like she did the first time. You know what I mean? And maybe does something good for this sport. That's kind of always my mindset on all of this.

I'm not a hater. Fighting, fighting. I do, the fighting is the part in the cage when we're in there. You know what I mean? Like, I don't need to go out there and bash all these people. There's enough hate going on in this world. Yeah. And you mentioned there is what I make clear.

So you're still grappling? this weekend. I am, of course, man. I still want to do that. Yeah, man. Like, that's, you know, like, that's even for me. Like, I do this for me. You know what I mean?

Like, I took this fight for me. I accept this loss. It's for me. Like, these are, these are, this is just my life, you know? Like, and I still, I, there's things that I like to do for fun. And I know that people support me no matter what. And some days it's a good day at the office and some days it's a bad day at the office. Yeah.

You know, and football, they don't quit playing just because they lost last weekend. And they have another game the next weekend, you know, like, I'm an athlete. It just sucks how the fighting industry, you know, is done is that we're identified so much by winner loss that everyone's like, oh, well, you lost, you lost, you lost. Like, you never get to live for the next thing. They're always constantly comparing you to what you did before. You know what I mean? Or, like, what happened before? Like, I'm just, I'm moving on with my life.

Like, this is, like, on to the next thing. I'll get back to training in a week. You know, like, I'm going to grapple this weekend. Like, life still continues and still needs done. Like, it doesn't just stop because something didn't go my way. You know what I mean? I wish the common MMA fan had that same kind of outlook on stuff. Yeah.

To that point, you mentioned you're grappling this weekend. Can I imagine that in a perfect world, you definitely want to get another fighter, maybe even two in this year? I don't know yet. You know, like, obviously, I don't know. I don't really know what I want to do right now. You know what I mean? I'm like, I love fighting.

I love fighting a lot. Like, I really do. I had a blast fighting Cynthia. Like, it was fun to, to, like, she did a great job. I love how, you know, like, strategy she was on taking me down. And I love some of my strikes that I was sitting on it because I know they hurt. But, like, to be honest, am I rushed to get back into the cage right now? Not really.

You know what I mean? like I'm turning 34 this, you know, summer. Like, I don't know. Maybe I'm going to start exhausting some other things in my life. You know, like, maybe I'm going to start podcasting. Like, right now, fighting, I'd like to take a break from it. All I did during this pandemic was trained and try to keep myself as honest as I possibly can. And to be honest, now that the world's opening up, I want to live a little.

Yeah. Yeah, I know you spent a lot of time, you know, you basically built a home gym to get ready and stay ready for a fight. So I know it's been, you haven't had, like, a lot of just downtime during the quarantine. Yeah, man, I want to come home and see Ohio. I want to come to see my friends.

I've been so busy the last year. I've had three fights in a year, you know, almost, and, you know, being out here. Like, I wouldn't mind taking the break. And unless it's something where I make a good amount of money, I don't know that it's going to get me off the couch. You know, obviously there was an incentive pay for me and Cynthia to take this main event.

and that's what got me off the couch. You know what I mean? So unless something is going to an MMA get me off the couch with a lot of money, I think there's a lot of other opportunities I can explore. Yeah, and obviously, if you do want to fight, whenever that is, there's going to be a lot of options out there. Obviously, there's already to build the potential of the fight

with Jojo Calder. Would that can come down? You mentioned during the conference call, there's somebody out there that you're not a big fan of in the Flyway Division. So there's options when you do want to fight again. Yeah, of course. Between Lauren Murphy and Jojo. I mean, they're like, I just don't, I don't get them.

I don't get how they want to act like these sweet women, but in all reality, they're ugly sold, and they just, they talk about people, they go to Twitter to recruit people, like, they're bullies. Like, that's real-life bullying. Like, as much as they want to sit there, be like, I'm so nice and so sweet, like, your real-life bullies. Like, that's exactly what a bully is in definition, right? Like, if you have a problem or you didn't like something, you don't have to go to that.

I don't go to, like, and I learn that myself, you know what I mean? Like, I've had to eat my own words by being a bully, and I have, Mary, I bullied sergeant said things about our missing weight. And look, I miss weight. You know what I mean? Like, I take, I'm noble enough. I'm better than those women. At least I say when I'm wrong, and I admit it. Yeah, and to that point, to that point, you don't, you, you may not even know the answer to this question right now, but maybe you do.

Diffuser with fighting, do you still want to be a flyweight? Yeah, oh, God, yeah. Oh, God. I just can't walk over 140. I shouldn't be. I got over 140. Anytime I get over 140, my cut to 25 is terrible. Yeah, yeah.

Well, obviously, you've got the grappling match coming up this weekend. I'm sure you've got other things going on, you know, coming back home here to Ohio. So I'm sure you'll be ready to, you know, there's always things to do, always things to go on. I'm sure you'll be ready for that whenever it comes. Yeah, you know, I'm, I'm not, I'm not done fighting, you know what I mean? I just, you know, I'd like to, I'd like to just train to have fun and see what, see what else is out there in life. And, again, you know, help other people in this sport.

So, I mean, we'll see what's next for Jessica. Listen, fighting is a very small portion of my life. There's so much more. And MMA is still so small in this world. There's so many things that, that are bigger. I can be a part of. Yeah, absolutely. Well, Jess, I really appreciate you doing this.

Obviously, best luck in the grappling match this weekend. I'll be watching Submission Underground. Obviously, Chil Sondon's organization doing a great job out there. And I appreciate you taking the time for this, and I'm sure we will catch up very soon. Yes, Jared. Thank you so much. All right. Talk to you soon.