NEW YORK Sijara Eubanks was promised a title shot at this weekend’s UFC 230 event, before it was infamously taken away in favor of a different matchup. “Sarj” admits she wasn’t happy with the choice but thinks her time as champion is still on the horizon.
“The thing is, I’m going to get my belt one way or another,” Eubanks told MMAjunkie. “Keep chugging. Keep training. Keep working hard. Keep the diligence, and it will happen. I think I deserve a shot vs. the winner of (Valentina Shevchenko vs. Joanna Jedrzejczyk) with a dominant performance here, Nov. 3.”
Eubanks (3-2 MMA, 1-0 UFC) rematches Roxanne Modafferi (22-14 MMA, 1-2 UFC) at Saturday’s UFC 230 event, which takes place at Madison Square Garden in New York. The two meet on the FS1-televised prelims, which follow prelims on UFC Fight Pass and precede the pay-per-view main card.
Eubanks was briefly expected to face Shevchenko for the vacant UFC women’s flyweight title, but promotion officials changed their mind, adding putting Jedrzejczyk in Eubanks’ place and moving the fight to UFC 231 next month.
Eubanks took to social media to blast UFC brass for their decision before being quickly booked in the fight with Modafferi.
“It’s easy to sort of get caught up in moaning and be mad, but it’s not going to help at all because the train is moving,” Eubanks said. “Life goes on. … I gave myself some time to be pissed about it, but not much. The day that they took the title shot away, I re-signed for Roxanne that night, like 1 o’clock in the morning. I went to bed, like, pissed off, but by the time I woke up the next morning, I had no choice but to move on. I had a whole new opponent, a whole new camp.
“This is a funny game, but it’s sort of like life lessons. I can’t dwell on what happened. I have to dwell on what’s going on now and what’s going to happen, and I can’t worry too much about all the craziness that happened a couple weeks ago because I cannot lose focus on what’s going on here Nov. 3.”
Eubanks earned a unanimous-decision victory in the first meeting, a three-round fight in the “TUF 26” semifinals that she believes should be listed on her official record. Eubanks, of course, would not compete in the finals after being declared medically ineligible due to weight cut complications.
It was the first time Eubanks missed out on competing for the UFC women’s flyweight title. UFC 230 marks the second time she’s missed out, but “Sarj” says she’s not going to allow herself to focus on negatives.
Instead, she plans on turning in a scintillating performance in this rematch and leave herself as the division’s clear No. 1 contender, lining up a title shot in her next outing.
“It’s been my goal as a mixed martial artist to be UFC world champion, and so I feel like twice I’ve missed it,” Eubanks said. “The first time was my fault, the second time it got snatched away. Hopefully the third time is a charm, but I still have a mega-opportunity here to continue to solidify my dominance here in this division.”
To hear more from Eubanks, check out the video above.For the latest on UFC 230, check out the UFC Rumors section of the site.