Maycee Barber refuses to be deterred after going from undefeated to now losing two consecutive fights.
At UFC 258, Maycee Barber lost to Alexa Grasso via unanimous decision in the co-main event, resulting in the second straight loss for the 22-year-old upstart. Her first loss came against Roxanne Modafferi in January 2020. Barber felt that the primary reason for this loss was a knee injury that she sustained during the contest. But this time, there was nothing out of the ordinary in her loss to Grasso at UFC 258. Grasso simply outfought her throughout the course of three rounds.
In her first interview after the loss, Barber opened up about her thoughts after a second loss. And while she believes her previous knee injury did hamper her from a mental standpoint, she admits that Grasso just fought the better overall fight.
“You know, more than I thought I was going to. I felt like my camp went great, training was awesome, weight cut went great,” Barber told BJPENN.com. “But, I didn’t realize how much I would feel my knee in there and think about it. My timing was also off, my range was off. A lot of different things were not what I expected them to be. But, props to Alexa because she had a great gameplan and she did what she needed to do and she got the win.”
“Obviously, as soon as I lost I wanted to deal with it. There were no injuries, and I’m healthy so it was a bitter pill to swallow like ‘dang, I didn’t perform, I didn’t do what I felt was going to happen.’ I was a little more bitter, so I didn’t think back about the lessons. Now, I am going to sit down and go through the whole camp, the training, and what I can learn from it.”
Maycee Barber Eager To Return To Action
Following this second loss, Dana White stated that he has not lost faith in his Contender Series alum because Barber has all the time in the world on her side. With Barber being only 22 years old, it’s difficult to argue against this assessment. Still, Barber intends to fight like a woman who knows that nothing in life is guaranteed, not even for a 22-year-old who appears to be promised tomorrow.
“I definitely want to fight as soon as I can,” Barber said. “After the fight some things hurt, but now that a couple of days have passed I am feeling fine. I am going to get some things looked at just to check,” Maycee Barber said. “But, I would like to, I texted Dana and Mick, and ‘I was like I want to fight in May.’ I would like to turn around as soon as I can.”
What do you believe the future holds for Maycee Barber in the UFC?