MMA star Jessica Eye is all about good energy—after all, there’s a reason her nickname is “Evil” Eye. Eye, 37, shared a picture of herself posing on the floor in front of a mirror, wearing black leggings and a matching tank top. In sharp contrast to her fighting persona, Eye looked serene and happy. “🪄 good energy 🤍,” she captioned the post. “Beautiful,” a fan commented. Eye has been through the ringer and came out on top—here’s what her unique approach to training—and life—looks like.
Eye follows a dairy-free diet after having her gallbladder removed. “I’m allergic to eggs and I ate eggs every fight week,” she told UFC.com. “It’s nice to feel much more clear-headed. I’m eating the right foods, I figured out what foods were causing me problems, and I no longer have a dead gallbladder.”
Eye has switched up the way she trains. “When I left Strong Style, I never wanted to get with another team,” she told UFC.com. “I wanted to be ‘The Eye Team’ — I wanted to be a lone soul in that way. I don’t want to share my time anymore; I’m past that. I’m a very bit selfish. I’m very monogamous in my relationships and my training relationships have to be that way as well. I’m finally on The Eye Team — I’ve been trying to get here and I’m finally here.”
Eye is a big proponent for mental health support. “I recommend that if [an athlete has] ever thought about seeing a sports psychologist, if you might need some help, go get it,” she said during a Q&A session prior to UFC 203, via Stack. “Who cares what other people think? Go do what you gotta do to make yourself better. I’m fortunate enough that I decided to do that…I stopped believing for a long time in myself. That was my tagline: I’m a believer. And I stopped believing.”
Eye says no matter how much time you spend in training, an actual fight is unpredictable. “That’s the thing about fighting — proper MMA fighting,” she told The Players Tribune. “You can spend seven months training, spend all that time in the gym learning how to box and apply submission holds and manipulate space, but in the end, when it gets to fight night, it’s just you in the ring, by yourself, up against someone else. There’s no hiding. You have to go to work. You have to do it or you get done.”
Eye is a very compassionate and empathetic person—outside of the ring. “If I’m not fighting or training, I give the shirt off my back,” she told Cleveland Magazine. “If a turtle was crossing the road, I’d stop traffic to make sure it gets across safely.”