UFC 264 featured a women’s flyweight fight between Jessica Eye and Jennifer Maia in the prelims. Both Jennifer Maia and Jessica Eye were fighting to earn another opportunity to face the dominant flyweight champion, Valentia Shevchenko.
While Jessica Eye suffered a brutal KO defeat against Shevchenko, Jennifer Maia lost to the champion via decision. However, Maia won one round against Shevchenko, which is more than what other title contenders in the flyweight division have been able to do.
So there is a possibility that Jennifer Maia can get back to title contention with tonight’s win over Jessica Eye.
Read More: UFC fighters to receive $75,000 performance bonus at UFC 264
It was a closely contested fight in the first round. Jessica had some success in the first round and arguably won it as well. However, she was making huge errors tactically, which cost her the fight in the end.
Jessica was moving forward for the majority of the fight looking to box Jennifer Maia. She did not use her leg kicks effectively for the majority part of the fight. Her accuracy was not impressive either and she took a lot of punches while covering the distance against Maia.
On the other hand, Jennifer Maia was the smarter fighter as she stayed out of the pocket. She covered the distance smartly and she was landing a lot.
Read More: Conor McGregor accidentally kicks Dana White
Jessica Eye suffers a nasty injury
In the second round Jennifer Maia opened up a nasty cut on the forehead of Jessica Eye and that must have had an impact on Eye’s performance in the third round.
https://twitter.com/espnmma/status/1414011781798789121?s=19
https://twitter.com/NoelleFoley/status/1414012921722646534?s=19
Maia won the fight comfortably in the end by the decision even though it was a close fight as per the stats. Following her win, Jennifer Maia asked for a title rematch against Valentina Shevchenko. Maia said the fact that she went 5 rounds with Shevchenko should get her a title shot following the win over Jessica Eye.
