Looking to improve both her personal and professional life, UFC flyweight Jessica Eye packed up and moved to Las Vegas in February of 2019. Shortly following that move she would find herself fighting for the UFC flyweight title against Valentina Shevchenko. Although her bid for championship gold didn’t go as planned, Eye was just getting started with her new team at Xtreme Couture.
In an interview with BJPENN.com, Eye discussed her move to Xtreme Couture and Las Vegas, after spending years with StrongStyle gym in Cleveland, Ohio, home of reigning heavyweight champion Stipe Miocic. With the decision to move to Xtreme Couture and Las Vegas, Eye feels she’s done what is best for her in personal life as well as her fighting career.
“Moving to Vegas is probably the best to ever happen to me in my life.”-@jessicaevileye discusses her move from Ohio to Las Vegas and how @Eric_XCMMA and @GrayMaynard have been instrumental to her since the move.
— Mike Pendleton (@MP2310) April 5, 2020
“Moving to Vegas has probably been the best thing that’s ever happen to me in my life,” Eye said. “We’re in a year in now to me now being in Vegas and I’ve just found myself to be a different person. It’s crazy because I encourage everyone to step outside their comfort zone and to move, but I’m so overwhelmed with the words to explain everything that’s happened with my move. I’m so thankful for Eric Nicksick, he’s been such a mentor, a teacher, a friend, a coach, he really has done so much for me, as well as Gray Maynard — the man is a UFC legend of all — as well as my brother, jiu-jitsu coach, and Bo Sandoval. those group of guys have been there for me. My move here has been absolutely incredible and it’s still developing.”
Just over a year into her time in Vegas, Eye believes that there’s still time for her to learn and grow.
“You think a year is a long time, but it’s really not,” Eye said. “I remember when it came up on a year, I was like has it already been a year? It doesn’t seem like it’s been that long. I don’t know if that means because I’m in the right place that I’m living in the moment and things aren’t rushing. It’s really truly been incredible, I’m so fortunate for the new relationships that I’ve created here. They’ve made old ones that were in Ohio just as strong, if not stronger, and unfortunately severed some of them. I guess that’s just the way things will have to be. It’s hard to look at anything else other than what’s right in front of me, when I love so much of what’s going on and it’s kind of hard to look back.”
Now fully healthy and in a place that feels like home, Jessica Eye is on the road to another title shot in the flyweight division, and is confident she’ll wear the division’s crown one day.
Although there were talks that she could’ve fought in March, Eye and her team decided to opt for elbow surgery instead, and she says Xtreme Couture and the UFC Performance Institute have gotten her to a place where she feels fully healthy.
Not one afraid to speak her mind, Jessica Eye has had her share of naysayers try to hold her back in her career, but the moment she chose to bet on herself and move to Vegas is one that showed the world who she really is.
This article first appeared on BJPENN.com on 4/6/2020.