CLEVELAND — Jessica “Evil” Eye is just over two weeks away from a UFC championship bout against Valentina Shevchenko in Chicago, and the Rootstown, Ohio native is making the most of every moment ahead of her first title contest in the Ultimate Fighting Championship.
Training out of Xtreme Couture MMA gym in Las Vegas, Eye shared on her Instagram page a video of a recent workout session.
Eye was willing to wait for her chance at fighting for a UFC championship, but that proved not very long at all.
Three months after finishing off her third consecutive victory, Eye agreed to a championship match against Shevchenko, the current flyweight titlist, in a match that will serve as the co-main event of UFC 238 inside Chicago’s United Center on June 8.
Eye rose to the No. 1 contender status after her last victory, a unanimous-decision win over Katlyn Chookagian at UFC 231 at Scotiabank Arena in Toronto back in December.
After the rankings were released following her win over Chookagian, Eye tweeted a photo of the new UFC championship with no words, just a heart-eyed emoji.
According to FightMetric, Eye outpointed Chookagian, 166-140, in total strikes, as well as 162-130 in significant strikes. Additionally, Eye landed at a higher rate than Chookagian, as she connected on 43 percent of her total strikes and significant strikes.
Also, Eye attempted six takedowns, while Chookagian did not go for any.
Since switching to the newly-created 125-pound flyweight class after posting a 1-5 record with one no-contest at bantamweight, Eye is 3-0 with decision wins over Kalindra Faria, 10th-ranked Jessica-Rose Clark and Chookagian, the No. 3 ranked fighter in the class, over an 11-month span.
Eye is 14-6 with one no contest in her 10-year professional mixed martial arts career.
Shevchenko won the vacant UFC women’s flyweight championship with a victory over former strawweight titlist Joanna Jedrzejczyk in December. The Kyrgyzstan native is 16-3 in her career and 5-2 since joining the UFC.
Her only setbacks in the UFC came against current two-class champion Amanda Nunes.
