Jessica Eye struggles to stand after missing weight

By Adam Hill

Las Vegas Review-Journal

5 years ago

UFC flyweight Jessica Eye poses on the scale at the UFC Apex after weighing in for UFC on ESPN ... — UFC flyweight Jessica Eye poses on the scale at the UFC Apex after weighing in for UFC on ESPN 10 in Las Vegas, Friday, June 12, 2020. Eye, who’s slated to compete in the main event at the UFC Apex on Saturday, June 13, missed weight by a quarter-pound. (Heidi Fang) @HeidiFang

Las Vegan Jessica Eye lost her battle with the scale for the second straight fight.

The No. 1-ranked women’s flyweight contender looked frail and struggled to stand Friday as she weighed in at 126.25 pounds, a quarter-pound over the limit for her UFC Fight Night 172 main event bout against Cynthia Calvillo.

Eye will forfeit 25 percent of her purse and the bout will go on as scheduled on Saturday night.

She wasn’t alone. Middleweight Karl Roberson missed the middleweight mark by 4.5 pounds for his bout against Mavin Vettori as Roberson came in at 190.5 pounds.

That added fuel to the rivalry between the fighters that started when Roberson fell ill due to weight-cutting complications and pulled out of their scheduled bout the day before the fight exactly one month ago in Jacksonville, Florida.

Vettori, who confronted Roberson in the hotel lobby that day, will get 30 percent of Roberson’s purse and the fight is expected to remain on Saturday’s card.

Also, Zarrukh Adashev missed the bantamweight limit by 2.5 pounds for his bout against Tyson Nam and has agreed to forfeit 20 percent of his purse. Adashev was a very late replacement this week and hit the scales at 138.5 pounds.

While those three fights will remain on the card, a featherweight bout between Jordan Griffin and Darrick Minner has been scrapped.

Minner fell ill while cutting weight and was instructed to rehydrate and not compete on the advice of UFC personnel.

“Long story short, the weight cut was going super smooth, everything on point,” he stated in a social media post early Friday. “Came back to nap before I hit the last 5 (pounds). Woke up after a two hour nap, started throwing up and didn’t stop for 6-7 hours. Still throwing up this morning but it has slowed down. The UFC performance institute nutrition and staff tried everything to get my stomach under control before they had to make the call to start rehydrating.”

Eye was shaking as she walked to the scale and grabbed hold as she stepped off.

“I’m done,” she could be heard saying. “I don’t think I can stand guys, I’m sorry.”

The 33-year old missed weight by five pounds ahead of her December win over Viviane Araujo.

She said Thursday the weight cut had gone much smoother this time.

Contact Adam Hill at ahill@reviewjournal.com. Follow @AdamHillLVRJ on Twitter.