Paige VanZant may have exercised a favorable relationship with UFC President Dana White to avoid fighting Jessica Eye
That is the opinion of “Evil” Eye, at least.
Eye recently shared copies of two contracts which she claims were sent to her for two scheduled bouts against VanZant. Both fights were subsequently canceled, with VanZant pulling out of both with injury, according to the 31-year-old.
VanZant appeared on Monday’s episode of the MMA Hour, where she confirmed that her next appearance inside the Octagon is set for Jan. 14, although her opponent is yet to be confirmed. “12 Gauge” also responded to Eye’s claims (via MMAFighting):
“I know that originally me and her were supposed to fight and that I ended up getting hurt, then they tried to get that fight matched up again, but at that point the UFC had moved on and they were trying to get me on the Australia card,” VanZant said.
“They asked me when Anderson Silva ended up not being on the Shanghai card, they asked if I would take a last-minute fight. They asked me ten days or maybe two weeks before the fight if I would take a short-notice fight in Shanghai, so this whole time I thought I was going to be jumping in for a short-notice fight because I got ready really quickly and after my back healed I had this itch to get back in the cage right away.”
Eye later called into The MMA Hour to give her side of the story:
“Because Paige called Dana and asked to get out of the fight,” Eye said. “They were not gonna let her out of this fight and she – whatever bitch fit she threw, I signed that contract, I signed that one October 18 I think… I got the contract signed and returned it that day for that one. I have the other signed contract that we sent back for the other fight and for the other time. Listen, I’m not here saying that maybe two different things weren’t being said, but we all know that the UFC does not send contracts to people unless both parties agreed upon wanting the fight and said yes to everything.
“That went out and then it was like New York weekend (UFC 217) happened and all of a sudden she came home and realized, ‘Oh, wait a minute, Jessica is one of the best 125ers and she can kick my ass. So now I don’t want this fight, I would much rather go fight a girl that Bec (Rawlings) lost to,’ because she beat Bec. Which is fine. It’s totally fine but we’ve been trying to get myself a fight. I haven’t been in the cage, I’ve been begging for 125 and we revolved all of our decision making because Paige was being cooperative. And then one day I think I have a fight coming up, the next day I don’t. It’s not fair for her to do that.”
