Cynthia Calvillo takes on Jessica Eye in the main event of UFC on ESPN 10. The flyweight encounter has a lot of divisional importance for the calendar year. The pugilistic proceedings will broadcast on both ESPN and ESPN+ this Saturday, June 13. Things are rolling just days away from the event, and news keeps dropping surrounding the flyweight action on the card.
While some fighters on these next few events see benefits in the smaller cage, Calvillo is evidently not one of those fighters. She is seemingly unconcerned about the 25-foot dimensions of the UFC Apex cage.
“For a lot of my fights, I’ve never really had the luxury of having like a 30 foot or like the exact size cage in the UFC,” she told Cageside Press recently. “If anything we’ve always kind of trained in smaller cages so I don’t think it’s going to be an issue at all.”
Eye is the top-ranked contender at 125lbs and Calvillo is making her UFC debut in the division. “I think that beating Jessica Eye obviously is going to put me up there in the top five,” stated Calvillo. “I already beat Joanne Calderwood. She’s going up next for the title. And I already beat a couple of flyweights that are in the UFC as well.”
Those include Gillian Robertson and Montana De La Rosa earlier in her career.
Calvillo vs. Eye
“It went from zero to a hundred real quick. So we’re busy,” Calvillo would tell us about life going into the fight. She would go on to elaborate on that statement even further. “It has been pretty crazy; the gym got shut down. As soon as Khabib left. I’m training at AKA for this fight. That all stopped. The training obviously changed. I did what I could in this one. Doing what I can with what I had especially since I had just moved there too. I didn’t have many resources available to me.”
Calvillo’s training was able to resume about a week ago and the gym environment allowed for Calvillo to field fight offers. The Eye fight was one she had asked for but was pleasantly surprised to see pan out. The return to the flyweight division is from all accounts going seamlessly on multiple levels.
Calvillo explained that “I feel great. Started my amateur career at 125 and I started my pro career at 125. I did a catchweight at 120. And then 115 ultimately and that’s because at that time in the UFC, there was no flyweight division. There was only the strawweight division.”
This is a weight class that Cynthia Calvillo has not endeavored to compete in since early in her pro career. With UFC adopting the division in recent years, Calvillo can now move on from strawweight to something that resembles her true weight class. “I feel like I’m gonna have less injuries during training as well. Feel amazing, honestly. I cannot wait to get in there and compete at my weight.”
UFC on ESPN 10 will air live this Saturday, June 13 from the UFC Apex in Las Vegas, NV. The card will be simulcast on both EPSN and ESPN+.
You can peep my interview with Cynthia Calvillo below!
