Feb 22, 2014; Las Vegas, NV, USA; Jessica Eye (blue gloves) lands a left hook on Alexis Davis (red gloves) during their UFC bantamweight bout at Mandalay Bay. Davis won the bout by split decision.
Feb 22, 2014; Las Vegas, NV, USA; Jessica Eye (blue gloves) lands a left hook on Alexis Davis (red gloves) during their UFC bantamweight bout at Mandalay Bay. Davis won the bout by split decision. REUTERS

Jessica Eye was being hailed with a lot of promise when she signed up with the Ultimate Fighting Championship last year. It has been a long nine-month lay-off since she lost to Alexis Davis and before that she had to go through the controversy of testing positive marijuana to buck the detractors.

Eye reveals that she spent the summer contacting Dana White and texting Sean Shelby hoping for the opportunity to fight. She patiently followed twitter feeds looking for the first sign that a renowned fighter has mentioned or challenged her to no avail. The 28-year-old stand-up fighter thought she would get her chance against new acquisition and talented boxer Holly Holm but that did not happen as the former light welterweight champion was booked against Raquel Pennington (update: Holm has been pulled out of that fight due to an injury).

The number 8th ranked pound-for-pound fighter is getting her chance to prove detractors wrong from the last defeat as she is set to rumble with Leslie Smith as one of the fight cards for UFC 180 in Mexico, Saturday. Eye is adamant that she is willing to atke on all comers and vowed to dispose of Smith in impressive fashion come fight night.

"I want to fight every single female in the UFC," Eye said. "If they wanted me to fight Ronda now, I'm ready now. I'm in a completely different state of mind. No matter what, I believe right now. Ronda Rousey might be the reason why we're all here, but there's a purpose and I'm the purpose."

The Rootstown, Ohio native also said she deserved to win the last fight with Davis and that her opponent did not hurt her despite several takedowns. She said that Davis was wary of the damage that she could do facing up that determined her rival to put her down without doing any heavy damage. She said that she just had a top level grappler holding her down without doing much damage.

Eye is more optimistic of her chances and the level of competition against Smith who is also a jiu-jitsu artist and a face-up fighter just like herself. Nevertheless, she is not underestimating her opponent as she knows that any fight in the Octagon can last the whole nine yards or end in a snap of ten seconds.