An emotional Maycee Barber took to the internet on Sunday afternoon to make a statement following her disturbing UFC Seattle loss that left her unconscious on the canvas with her eyes wide open for over a minute.
Barber got caught with a stiff one-two just minutes into her fight with Alexa Grasso that dropped her to the canvas stunned. Grasso popped her again on the chin and then grabbed her neck, strangling her for a moment before the ref came in to stop the fight. Some sort of reflex in Barber led her to grab the referee’s leg before she collapsed again, staring blankly at the sky like the dead kid from Stand By Me.
It took officials over three minutes to wake Barber up and get her on a stool, and while she participated in the official announcement and Grasso getting her hand raised, it was a scary moment that resulted in her being rushed to the hospital afterward.
Now Maycee Barber is speaking on the finish and how she’s doing.
“Well, this is not the post or video that I wanted to be making today,” an emotional Barber said. “But I wanted to come on here and say thank you to the UFC and thank you to Alexa for the opportunity. You know, I wanted to go out there and get my opportunity to get my rematch and dominate and get the win back. And unfortunately it was not my night. I got caught, and Alexa did an amazing thing. She is a phenomenal fighter.”
“I don’t really remember a whole lot,” Barber said of the fight finish. “All I know is that every time I go on social media, I look like I’m dead. And that’s not a very fun thing to see. So I’ve been trying to stay off of social media, but I also wanted to come on here and at least tell you guys that I am okay, and I will be back.”
“It’s very hard because I don’t remember a lot. So this is me saying thank you to everybody. And also, I love you all.”
The loss to Grasso snapped a seven fight win streak that was already fraying due to a year-long layoff due to mystery illness. Barber withdrew from the main event of two cards, once with a week to go and another mere minutes before the fight, causing the headline fight to be cancelled. She managed a successful return in December 2205, beating Karine Silva via decision.
Losing to Grasso is a setback for the 27 year old, but the strange knockout is more concerning and raises questions about whether Barber really is healthy enough to be competing at the highest levels of the sport.