Cynthia Calvillo: Jessica Eye cheated to make weight for UFC on ESPN 10, was 3-plus pounds over

Newly minted UFC flyweight Cynthia Calvillo twice said she’s “cool” with Jessica Eye after her win at UFC on ESPN 10. But the one-time title challenger’s actions at the event’s weigh-ins made her curse, prompting a couple of apologies for language.

The reason for Calvillo’s foul language was Eye’s behavior after officially coming in 0.25 pounds heavy for the ESPN-televised headliner, which she said was a smokescreen for missing weight and then cheating on the scale.

“I knew she was going to be huge,” Calvillo told reporters after her win on Saturday. “She had missed weight, and to be honest, she didn’t miss weight by .2 – she actually missed weight by a lot more, but she held on to the towel when she got on the scale.

“I know this because we received a text message from her coach letting us know she was going to miss weight by 3.5 pounds, not .2. But when she showed up, she held the towel and got away with it. That’s why she was so proud after she weighed in, and so happy. She’s like, ‘Oh, I only missed by .2 pounds’ – no. So she went into this fight a lot heavier than I did. So not only did I move up a weight class, I got somebody that was a bantamweight, not fighting as a flyweight.”

Calvillo’s comment came less than 24 hours after No. 1 flyweight contender Joanne Calderwood sparred with Eye on Twitter, accusing her of clocking in four pounds heavy and bending the rules by not keeping her hands visible while on the scale. Eye in turn accused Calderwood of being an “instigator” and challenged her to a fight at a gym.

Eye’s official weight was 126.25 pounds for the non-title flyweight bout. But Calvillo, who also stepped up on short notice for the main event fight, was still the more active and accurate fighter over five rounds, easily taking home a unanimous decision after a series of misses on the scale prompted her to move up from the strawweight division.

Despite her irritation, Calvillo never contemplated withdrawing from the fight or asking for more money when Eye came in heavy.

“I’m a fighter,” she said. “I’ve missed weight before, too, and everybody accepted the fight. It’s all about how you carry yourself, too, outside when you miss weight. When I missed weight, I locked myself in the hotel and I freakin’ cried for a few hours. I wasn’t running around f*cking smiling – sorry excuse my language – but I wasn’t like smiling and blah, blah, blah. So it was definitely a different demeanor, but I knew I needed to put that behind me.

“At the end of the day, I like Jessica. But just the way that whole ordeal with the weight happened, it wasn’t cool. But I knew it was my job and I was going to show up.”

Asked whether her stance might have shifted had Eye actually made weight, thereby depriving her of a 25 percent fine, Calvillo said she “100 percent” would have made it an issue.

“We have the texts from her coach messaging my manager saying she was 129.6 [pounds] 30 minutes before she weighed in,” Calvillo said. “[Eye] magically took three pounds off? I don’t think so. It’s not going to fly.”

Eye apologized for the miss after the official weigh-ins that she was proud to have hit the 126.25-pound mark and appeared to attribute her miss to the temperature in the room and not previously using the bathroom.

“Man, if it was that easy, then maybe you would have cut your hair if it was only .2,” Calvillo replied. “It was just bullsh*t, and it wasn’t cool how she carried [herself]. I’m cool with Jessica, but just how she handled the whole weight cut was not cool.”

Calvillo also resented Eye’s claim during a media faceoff that she was only 0.2 pounds over and brushed off her words, vowing to be better on fight day.

“It’s not the first time a fighter has done that, hold on to the towel or try to take pounds off the scale,” she said. “But go about it, just suck it up and be quiet and show up the next day. But the simple fact that right after she weighed in and was all happy, and I knew it was all bullsh*t. I knew I was going to show her up the next day.”