A key women’s flyweight fight is in the works for UFC 276 in July.
The bout, which has been verbally agreed to, will see former title challenger Jessica Eye (15-10, 1NC) take on the surging Casey O’Neill (9-0). ESPN was first to report the match-up, with O’Neill confirming she had a fight booked.
The fight finds “King” Casey O’Neill looking for her fifth straight win inside the octagon, against her biggest name yet. Last time out, the Scottish-Australian fighter earned a split decision win over Roxanne Modafferi, in Modafferi’s retirement fight.
She’s also picked up wins over Shana Dobson, Lara Procopio, and Antonina Shevchenko since joining the UFC last year.
O’Neill is a former Eternal MMA strawweight champion who moved up to 125lbs in 2020.
Jessica Eye will be looking to snap a three-fight skid when she enters the octagon at UFC 276. “Evil” Eye has fallen on hard times before— starting in 2015, she dropped four straight fights at 135lbs and was on the brink of losing her spot on the UFC roster, only to move to flyweight, bounce back and earn herself a title shot against Valentina Shevchenko.
Since the Shevchenko fight, however, Eye has won just a single bout, a unanimous decision win over Viviane Araujo in December 2019. After that, she dropped decisions to Cynthia Calvillo, Joanne Wood, and Jennifer Maia.
Eye was scheduled to compete at UFC 272 earlier this month against Manon Fiorot, but was forced off the card due to injury.
UFC 276 is set to take place on July 2, 2022 at the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas, Nevada. Thus far, the only other fight reported for the event is another women’s flyweight match-up, which will see former UFC women’s bantamweight champ Miesha Tate move down to face recent flyweight title challenger Lauren Murphy.
