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Jessica Eye is making her comeback, this time in the world of bare-knuckle fighting. The former UFC flyweight title challenger announced on The Ariel Helwani Show that she has signed with Bare Knuckle Fighting Championship (BKFC), a move that BKFC also confirmed on social media.
A combat sports veteran, Eye is best known for her 15-fight UFC tenure from 2013 to 2022. Once considered among the top-ranked flyweights, she challenged Valentina Shevchenko for the UFC women’s flyweight championship at UFC 238, though she ultimately fell short. Eye concluded her UFC career with a 5-10 record, finishing on a four-fight losing streak before stepping away from competition.
Now 38 years old, Eye has not fought since her 2022 loss to Maycee Barber at UFC 276. She revealed to Helwani that her time away from the sport was due to significant health struggles, including gallbladder removal, sepsis, and E. coli infections.
“I think a lot of people didn’t understand what I was going through towards the end of my fight career,” Eye explained. “I think a lot of people kind of got confused at times when I started missing weight and having all these problems... I ended up contracting a parasite. You ever heard of that show [Monsters Inside Me]? Legitimately, there was a monster inside me. There was a worm about that long.”
According to Eye, she passed the parasite just five weeks before her retirement fight in 2022, but the toll on her body was immense. Despite initially stepping away from the sport, she admits she wasn’t ready to retire, but her body had been pushed to the limit.
Eye is now set to make her BKFC debut on May 10 in Salt Lake City, though an opponent has yet to be announced. As of now, she is only committed to one fight, but she has not ruled out continuing her career with BKFC depending on how things go.