Cynthia Calvillo beats Jessica Eye in UFC flyweight debut

Cynthia Calvillo loudly announced her presence in the UFC women’s flyweight division on Saturday night.

The strawweight contender moved up in weight and scored a unanimous decision over No. 1 contender Jessica Eye in the main event of UFC on ESPN 10 at the UFC Apex facility.

The judges scored the fight 49-46, 49-46, 48-47.

Eye, a Las Vegan, had few answers for Calvillo whenever the fight went to the mat and couldn’t make up the difference in the standup as Calvillo more than held her own.

Calvillo improved to 3-0-1 since her lone career loss in December 2017 and is likely to lobby for a title shot in a division desperate for a new challenger to injured champion Valentina Shevchenko after beating the top contender at 125 pounds.

The bout was technically contested at a catchweight after Eye missed the flyweight mark by a quarter-pound on Friday. Calvillo was pleased after accepting the fight two weeks ago and being limited in training due to the availability of gyms in northern California during the pandemic.

“I feel great, especially putting on a performance like that with a short amount of training,” she said. “It just feels amazing to do this during this time.”

In the co-main event, Marvin Vettori was able to settle his score with Karl Roberson with a first-round submission in a 190.5-pound catchweight bout.

The two had been matched up on a card in Jacksonville, Florida, last month before Roberson was pulled from the event less than 24 hours out due to complications from his weight cut. Vettori confronted him in the lobby of the host hotel in a heated encounter that was captured on video and quickly circulated on the internet, creating a great deal of extra drama for Saturday when they finally met in the cage.

Vettori made sure there wasn’t much drama this time, securing a rear-naked choke against the cage and forcing the tap out at 4:17 of the opening round.

“I just wanted to fight,” he said. “I’m on a mission and wanted to keep going. I showed up and did my job. That’s what it’s all about — being professional.”

Roberson missed weight again Friday, but this time was deemed healthy to compete.

“This whole month there was so much uncertainty because I knew he wasn’t going to make weight again,” Vettori said. “But I didn’t care about that. Just step to the cage. At least he did that. He got his beating and on we go.”

Andre Fili and Charles Rosa picked up split-decision wins on the main card.

Fili rallied against featherweight Charles Jourdain in a back-and-forth affair despite getting dropped and losing the first round on all three cards, while Rosa bounced back from a loss last month in Jacksonville, Florida, to beat lightweight Kevin Aguilar and pick up his second win in three fights after missing more than 2½ years with a neck injury.

Las Vegan Gustavo Lopez, who signed with the UFC on Thursday to make his short-notice debut, dropped a one-sided unanimous decision to surging bantamweight prospect Merab Dvalishvili in a bout contested at a 140-pound catchweight due to the late booking.

Bantamweight Jordan Espinosa also cruised to a unanimous decision over Mark De La Rosa, who dropped his fourth straight and fell to 2-5 in the UFC.

Hannah Cifers was tapped out in the first round for the second time in two weeks, succumbing to a rear-naked choke from women’s flyweight prospect Mariya Agapova after just 2:42.

Cifers was submitted by Mackenzie Dern in 2:36 on the May 30 card in the same venue.

It was one of several fights to end early.

The first three bouts on the preliminary card all lasted less than a minute.

Welterweight Christian Aguilera knocked out Anthony Ivy in just 59 seconds to open the card and Tyson Nam followed it up with a 32-second knockout of Zarrukh Adashev in just 32 seconds.

Jula Avila needed only 22 seconds to knock out Las Vegan Gina Mazany in a women’s bantamweight bout, the fourth-fastest finish in the division’s history.

It marked the first time in UFC history that the first three fights of a card ended in less than a minute.

Contact Adam Hill at ahill@reviewjournal.com. Follow @AdamHillLVRJ on Twitter.