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Maycee Barber | All Systems Go
After A Serious Health Scare Last Year, UFC Flyweight Maycee Barber Returns To Face Erin Blanchfield In Her First Main Event At UFC Fight Night: Blanchfield vs Barber
Maycee Barber spent most of 2024 on the sidelines due to ongoing health issues following her win over Katlyn Cerminara last March.
Just days after the fight, Barber was hospitalized for nine days. Doctors suspected numerous different illnesses could be at play, but no one could accurately determine why she was so sick. Her time in the hospital included various tests, ER visits and numerous rounds of oral and IV antibiotics that made Barber fear for her life.
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After being released from the hospital, Barber was still suffering from the lingering effects of the medication, forcing her out of her first main event opportunity at UFC Denver over the summer.
To this day, Barber still has no answers.
“There hasn’t been any clarity,” Barber said. “There hasn’t been any kind of straight answer. It’s been a lot of little pieces that are little answers, but nothing that’s been this is what happened, this is why you had this. We still have no clue and good luck finding someone who does.”
It took until around November – nine months after being hospitalized – for Barber to be cleared to return to normal training and feel 100 percent in the gym. As soon as she knew her body could make it through a training camp, Barber asked to get back into the Octagon as soon as she could.
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At this point, any fight would do, having not competed in over a year. Not only was she offered a fight, but Barber was granted another opportunity to headline her first card, this time in Las Vegas against Erin Blanchfield.
“There were days where I’m like, thank God that I’m alive and I get to do this stuff,” Barber said. “It makes you really appreciate the things you do get to do, whether that’s training or just being able to live daily life.
“Being able to come here and have a fight week and be a main event, it just makes me have a lot more appreciation for it. But also, I’m not the only one who goes through things. Other fighters go through stuff all the time, whether it’s an injury or something. We all have had a lot of things where we’re like, ‘I may not be able to fight,’ so I think that really gives us the appreciation of what we do have.”
Not only will this be Barber’s first main event, but it’ll be the first time she’s scheduled for a five-round fight. Coming off a series of health issues and a long layoff, competing in your first five-rounder doesn’t sound ideal. But, for Barber, this is where she believes she’ll thrive.
Get A Full Breakdown Of Barber's Main Event Matchup With Erin Blanchfield
“Everyone’s seen it in my fighting style; I get better as the rounds go on,” Barber said. “Even in my last rounds in training, I always get better. For whatever reason, my first, second and third [rounds] are never as good as my fourth, fifth and sixth.
“There’s a lot of excitement going into this, knowing that I am a five-round fighter. For whatever reason, I was created to fight five rounds. Maybe God knew that I was meant to be a champion.”
While she feels more than confident her cardio can hold up for the full 25 minutes if needed, Barber has no intention to let the judges dictate the outcome of Saturday’s main event. Barber told UFC.com that Blanchfield has many obvious holes to her game that she believes will lead her to her fifth UFC finish.
“I am not planning on allowing this fight to go the full 25 minutes,” Barber said. “I plan on finishing Erin, whether that’s in the first, second, third, fourth, fifth, it doesn’t matter to me. All I know is I’m going out for the finish.
“Every time I visualize a fight, I don’t visualize one way [to win]. My mind visualizes everything. The only thing I know is my hand is getting raised. At the outcome of every visualization that I’ve had, my hand gets raised and she’s covered in blood.”
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The flyweight division has seen a lot of movement in the last few weeks, with Valentina Shevchenko defending her title and Top 10 contenders Natalia Silva and Jasmine Jasudavicius securing big wins in Montreal at UFC 315.
But if Barber can stop Blanchfield in as dominant a fashion as she predicts, she believes she’ll jump the line and earn a shot at the champion.
“A win and a finish over Erin puts me on a seven-fight win streak and solidifies my spot at the belt,” Barber said. “As for the division and the other girls, my main focus has been Erin, and it’s been 100 percent Erin, so as soon as I finish her, I plan on going for that belt.”
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