The remarkable comeback story of UFC fighter Jessica Eye

Las Vegas, Nevada––It’s only days before the biggest fight of Jessica Eye’s professional life, a title bout against flyweight Valentina Shevchenko. Eye moved from Ohio, her birth place where she has spent most of her life, to Las Vegas, Nevada. The day Jessica Eye decided she'd never go home again was her 26th birthday.That summer day in 2012 wasn't Eye's first brush with her father's violence. It was the first moment she felt bold enough to respond to it with violence of her own. She was a professional fighter by then. Violence was her trade. Her hands were weapons too.

Now she spends her days training at Xtreme Couture, MMA gym and at the UFC Performance Institute, a $14 million, 30,000 square foot facility that serves as as the world’s first Mixed Martial Arts multi-disciplinary research, innovation and performance center. And, she brought along her younger brother, Kasey Smith and her jiu-jitsu coach Darren Branch to share her home in the suburbs, just minutes from the Las Vegas strip.

She has known physical violence her whole life. As a target. As the one doing the targeting. This is where she hops it all comes together. She has to see this through. Eye knows exactly why she became a fighter. Because fighting found her first.

https://www.espn.com/mma/story/_/id/26894310/the-remarkable-comeback-story-ufc-fighter-jessica-eye

Photography for ESPN: Gail Fisher

ESPN Staff Writer: Hallie Grossman