In a women’s flyweight bout on Saturday’s main card, Jessica Eye and Joanne Calderwood meet at UFC 257 at the Etihad Arena in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates. The early prelims and prelims kick off at 7 p.m. ET on ESPN/ESPN+, followed by the main card on Pay-Per-View at 10 p.m. ET.
Eye (15-8) will be fighting for the first time since a unanimous-decision setback against Cynthia Calvillo in the main event on June 13, 2020, at the UFC’s APEX Facility in Las Vegas.
Two of her past three bouts have ended in losses, but a main event loss to Calvillo and second-round KO/TKO setback to Valentina Shevchenko in a title bout at UFC 238 are anything but embarrassing. Eye is still one of the top fighters in this division. Nine of her past 10 fights have ended up going the distance.
Calderwood (14-5) will be looking to rain blows onto Eye from the jump. She enters the octagon with a 6.17 to 3.65 advantage in significant strikes landed per minute, and a 48.03 to 36.39 significant strikes accuracy percentage advantage, too. In addition, Calderwood enjoys going to the canvas, too, leading 1.90 to 0.40 in takedown average, and 57.69 to 45.45 in takedown accuracy percentage.
Calderwood is champing at the bit to get back at it after being tapped out by Jennifer Maia last time out on Aug. 1, 2020. She has ended up going the distance in three of her past four outings.
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Eye vs. Calderwood: Betting odds, predictions and picks
Odds via BetMGM; access USA TODAY Sports’ betting odds for a full list. Lines last updated Friday at 4:04 a.m. ET.
CALDERWOOD (-120) has an advantage in all of the major stats over Eye (+100), and it’s a good bet to back the Scottish fighter on the 2-way line. An even better, based upon Eye’s penchant for going the distance, is backing CALDERWOOD ON POINTS (+130). This could be a rather slow, deliberate fight if Calderwood cannot surprise Eye early.
Based upon Eye going the distance in nine of her past 10 fights, the distance odds are rather extreme. Yes (-300) on ‘Will the fight go the distance?’ is just too expensive, although it’s probably a good bet to happen. It’s just too rich for my blood.
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