Calvillo defeated Eye by unanimous decision this past weekend at the UFC APEX in Las Vegas. At the event’s official weigh-ins, Eye missed weight by 0.25 pounds, but she alleged it was by much more than that. While she wasn’t thrilled with how the situation was handled this past Friday, Calvillo is happy to put it behind her after picking up the biggest win of her career.
“My manager was messaging me, messaging my coach and my phone was on silent so I wasn’t paying attention – I was more concerned with rehydrating,” Calvillo told MMA Fighting while appearing on What the Heck. “Sean Shelby came up to me and told me, ‘Hey, she’s gonna miss,’ and after speaking to my manager, they were all saying the same thing.
“Why would it be something that we made up? It sucks because, honestly, I don’t even really want to talk about it too much. I think it’s done and over with. I think she’s already receiving a lot of backlash for it so I don’t really want to be a part of all that social media stuff. It is what it is. It’s what happened.
“We’ll put it behind us. I’m No. 2 in the world right now.”
During the COVID-19 pandemic, fighters are getting to experience competing in empty arenas for the first time. Calvillo, who was also competing in her first main event, was able to hear instructions from both corners throughout the fight.
In fact, hearing the comments from Eye’s corner left Calvillo a little bit puzzled. But in the end, she got two 49-46 scorecards, as well as a surprising 48-47 tally.
“I don’t think that they believed she would finish me,” Calvillo said of her opponent’s corner. “They knew it would be a decision win, and they knew how the judges could be swayed. The entire fight, you could hear her corner yelling just ridiculous sh*t to try and bullsh*t the judges to make it seem in their favor.
“Let’s be honest, a lot of the judges aren’t even experienced. They don’t even know MMA. So if someone is yelling and making it seem like it’s going a different way, which is unfortunate because they also gave their fighter a false sense of confidence. They made her feel like she was winning the fight, so why would she push even harder?
“I think that was their plan and obviously it didn’t work out.”
With the win, Calvillo enters the divisional rankings in the No. 2 spot and now has a plethora of options. Of course, there’s the chance to fight for the title against Valentina Shevchenko should she emerge victorious over Joanne Calderwood whenever that title fight is rebooked.
Katlyn Chookagian—who is now ranked at the top at 125—called her out after the win on social media. Also, there’s pivotal fight between Roxanne Modafferi and Lauren Murphy that will take place this weekend at UFC on ESPN 11 in Las Vegas.
For someone with only one fight in the division, Calvillo couldn’t be happier with the place she’s in.
“That’s exactly what me, my manager and coach talked about,” Calvillo said. “We’re gonna see how it plays out. We’ll see how the fight this weekend goes and we’ll make that decision. All I know is that I want to line a fight up, we just don’t know what direction we want to go. We’ll see how everything lines up, we’ll talk to Mick (Maynard).
“I’m getting back in the gym on Monday and once we get that going, we’ll know the next step. Those are definitely the options we’re looking at. It’s either going to be Katlyn, or the winner of Modafferi and Lauren, or who knows, depending on injuries and stuff like that. If I’m up next for the title, I’ll gladly take it after Joanne Calderwood gets her shot.”
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