Two fighters who have experience fighting for a title shot will meet in the center of the Octagon this weekend as Valentina Shevchenko victims Jessica Eye and Jennifer Maia square off in what should be an entertaining battle in the early prelims portion of UFC 264: Poirier vs. McGregor 3. Check out our preview of this fight below.
Eye is still trying to regain her footing since she suffered a knockout loss at the hands of Valentina Shevchenko way back in June 2018. After that, Eye has gone 1-2. She won the follow-up fight to her loss to Bullet with a unanimous decision to Viviane Araujo in December 2019 but lost her last two fights to Cynthia Calvillo (UD/ June . 2020) and to Joan Calderwood (UD/ Jan. 2021). Eye isn’t one to shy away from a potential brawl with Maia, though she’s going to have to think more about her striking defense before engaging. Eye nevertheless has a higher significant strikes landed per minute (3.76) than Maia (3.34). Plus she has a two-inch reach advantage, which could play a huge role in the matchup. She also seems to have a great cardio as 17 of her fights ended in a decision, including all of her last three bouts.
Ranked fourth in the women’s flyweight division, Maia will enter the Octagon this coming Saturday determined to rebound from her loss in a title fight against Valentina Shevchenko via unanimous decision back in November 2020. Although Maia failed to snatch the title away from Bullet, there’s no shame in losing in that fight, as Shevchenko is just a different animal. Maia managed to win a round in that fight, which is something that not many Shevchenko opponents in the past could even say. She is 3-3 in her UFC career thus far, five of those fights lasting the distance. Maia is still dreaming of getting another shot at the title and a win this weekend against another top 10 contender could get her stock trending up again.She has four wins via knockouts, and if Eye would be careless in her attacks, the Brazilian could pounce on an opportunity to land some clean shots. Eye just got tagged with a total of 148 significant strikes in her last fight.
