Big Bad Blog Video Theater-Jessica Eye vs Anita Rodriguez

Here's the match video of Jessica "Evil" Eye vs Anita Rodriguez from last night's Bellator show in Cleveland. This match was streamed on the Spike TV website but I understand it was geo blocked outside North America. So I am posting this for them. There was quite a bit of behind the scenes wrangling surrounding this match. Originally, Jessica was supposed to face Aisling Daly who is the only fighter to beat her to date. But Aisling has a fight scheduled in early June against Rosi Sexton as part of Cage Warriors' 125lb tournament. So though the reason given for Aisling's departure was an ear infection, it probably wasn't a good idea to schedule two matches so closely together. And the match against Rosi is a much bigger match for her. So that didn't surprise me but I don't buy the ear infection reason given. Meanwhile, Anita Rodriguez was scheduled to face Cat Zangano on the Apr. 28 Invicta show. Anita is 38 years old with a 5-2 record. But last September she lost to Tonya Evinger. So after I stopped laughing about that fight and others were finished accusing Cat of cherry picking opponents, that fight was scrapped. So Anita was available for this fight. Obviously she's not a top fighter. But what do you expect for a last minute replacement? I like Jessica's fight technique and she has potential. But she needed to finish this fight and make a statement. And she didn't do that. Jessica likes to fight standing up. And though she has good technique, she doesn't have knockout power. The best way to finish an opponent like this is to take her down and pound her for a TKO. Jessica took Anita down in round one but Anita was able to neutralize her. Jessica was able to get side control. But the ref stood them up prematurely. In the second and third rounds, Anita showed very little offense. So Jessica outpointed her for the unanimous decision. But as Jessica said on Twitter this morning, not finishing is a disappointment. Sometimes how a fighter wins is more important than the win itself. And if Jessica can't finish a lower midcard fighter like this, what will she be like against the top fighters in this division? That's the question she needs to ask herself. Enjoy the video!