Miesha Tate vs. Jessica Eye Set For UFC Event This June
With Ronda Rousey vs. Bethe Correia official for the main event of Aug. 1’s UFC 190 from Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, No. 6-ranked women’s bantamweight Jessica Eye, who was expected to be in the running for the next shot at the dominant and undefeated champion, was left out in the dark in a relatively contender-starved division.
Her uncertainties didn’t last long, however.
At the tail end of today’s (Fri., March 20, 2015) UFC 189 Word Tour Press Conference, UFC President Dana White clarified that Eye has a huge fight scheduled when she takes on No. 2-ranked Miesha Tate at a yet-to-be-determined UFC event in June.
“We weren’t supposed to talk about that today, but Ronda wanted to, so we let her. They’re going to fight. Jessica Eye and Miesha Tate are going to fight. Sometime in June.”
Last year, Tate rebounded well from her UFC losses to Cat Zingano and Rousey by defeating former title contender Liz Carmouche and previously undefeated newcomer Rin Nakai. She kept that momentum rolling with a closely-contested majority decision win over Olympic silver medalist Sara McMann at January 31’s UFC 183.
“Cupcake” is almost certainly the second most popular women’s bantamweight in the world, but she’ll have her hands full with Ohio native Eye, who was last seen beating Leslie Murphy with a gruesome TKO stoppage at last November’s UFC 180 from Mexico City.
Before that Eye dropped her previous fight by decision to recent Rousey victim Alexis Davis. She also had her first UFC victory, a split decision win over former Strikeforce champ Sarah Kaufman, changed to a no contest after a positive drug test for marijuana.
Eye has some of the best boxing in the division, but she won’t be able to implement that skillset if she’s consistently put on her back by Tate’s dominant takedown and grappling game.
The winner will move on to the next perceived title shot, although it remains unknown if Tate will actually earn a trilogy match given her two prior stoppage losses to ‘Rowdy.’
Photo Credit: Jayne Kamin-Oncea-USA TODAY Sports
