{"id":393061,"date":"2026-01-07T03:30:05","date_gmt":"2026-01-07T03:30:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/393061\/"},"modified":"2026-01-07T03:30:05","modified_gmt":"2026-01-07T03:30:05","slug":"maycee-barber-says-she-doesnt-feel-safe-with-ufc-ref","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/393061\/","title":{"rendered":"Maycee Barber says she doesn\u2019t feel safe with UFC ref"},"content":{"rendered":"

Mixed martial arts (MMA) referees have one of the most unforgiving jobs<\/a> in sports. They\u2019re asked to make split-second decisions that can permanently alter a fighter\u2019s health and career. When they get it right, they\u2019re rarely praised. When they get it wrong, they\u2019re crucified<\/a> \u2014 and sometimes, fighters push back by asking not to be assigned to their bouts again.<\/p>\n

That appears to be the case for top Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) Flyweight contender Maycee Barber, who has made it clear she no longer wants veteran referee Mark Smith officiating her fights.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was told several times this is a great ref, and from my perspective now, I\u2019m like, I don\u2019t want him reffing my fights at all,\u201d Barber told MMA Fighting<\/a>. \u201cI don\u2019t feel safe in there with him anymore. I don\u2019t feel like he\u2019s a very fair ref.\u201d<\/p>\n

While Barber acknowledged that officials are human and capable of mistakes, she emphasized the uneven consequences between referees and fighters.<\/p>\n

\u201cPeople have bad days, so I try not to be too harsh, but at the same time, that\u2019s my job. My job is on the line,\u201d Barber said. \u201cHe can have a bad day at work and still get paid regardless. We\u2019re the ones risking our careers.\u201d<\/p>\n

Barber is far from the first to voice concerns about Smith\u2019s officiating. Just last year, Xtreme Couture head coach Eric Nicksick criticized Smith<\/a> after the referee stopped Chris Curtis\u2019 fight with just one second remaining<\/a>, saying it felt like competing against two opponents. Nicksick also noted that Smith had warned Curtis pre-fight about Roman Kopylov\u2019s tendency to foul \u2014 something that still occurred during the bout.<\/p>\n

Whether Smith will be assigned to officiate one of Barber\u2019s fights again remains to be seen. For now, \u201cThe Future\u201d has made her stance clear.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Mixed martial arts (MMA) referees have one of the most unforgiving jobs in sports. They\u2019re asked to make…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":393062,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[444],"tags":[49,48,641,33601,638,82,66312,702,3194],"class_list":{"0":"post-393061","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-mma","8":"tag-ca","9":"tag-canada","10":"tag-fighting","11":"tag-latest-ufc-mma-news","12":"tag-mma","13":"tag-sports","14":"tag-ufc-323","15":"tag-ufc-news","16":"tag-videos"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/393061","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=393061"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/393061\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/393062"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=393061"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=393061"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=393061"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}