Early this year, Maycee Barber’s career seemed to spiral overnight. Riding the best streak of her UFC run — six straight wins — the surging flyweight was finally set for her first UFC main event opposite rival Erin Blanchfield. Then, minutes before walkout, Barber, 27, collapsed backstage. The fight was canceled. The event ended in surreal fashion. And suddenly, her future looked uncertain.
At UFC 323, Barber finally got her reset. She battled through adversity against Brazil’s Karine Silva to earn a unanimous decision win this past weekend, although her victory was not without controversy. Midway through the fight, Barber absorbed an illegal upkick that left her visibly dazed, yet no point was deducted by referee Mark Smith, who dismissed the foul as a “glancing” blow and subsequently restarted the action on the feet.
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To Barber, Smith’s handling of the situation was indefensible.
“I was a little confused because, watching it back when we were warming up, there was so much conversation about fingers,” Barber said on Tuesday’s “The Ariel Helwani Show.” “How if your fingers are up versus if your fingers are down, you get a hard warning in the back — if you’re going to poke someone in the eye, your first warning is in the back. If you accidentally poke someone in the eye, you instantly get a point taken away.
“But an eye-poke, I think, is nothing compared to getting illegally kicked in the head, in my opinion. Having someone kick you in the head when you’re a downed opponent, I think that that’s a significantly more impactful strike than getting an eye-poke. … Either way, I think both of those things are illegal for a reason.
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“Her intention of throwing that kick when she was on the ground is to get up. So if your intention is to throw the kick in order to get up off the ground, then either put her back down on the ground [or] take a point. Instead it was, ‘We’re going to reset you both on the feet, and we’re not going to take a point.’ It’s a little bit frustrating watching it back, but I still won by unanimous decision and dominated that fight.”
Smith later came under scrutiny again at UFC 323 when he stopped Brandon Moreno vs. Tatsuro Taira after a rapid ground-and-pound flurry. The quick stoppage, paired with his mishandling of Barber’s upkick sequence, led many fans to question Smith’s entire night.
Barber hopes she doesn’t see him again.
“I think that was a big mistake on Mark Smith’s end,” Barber said. “That was terrible. I don’t want him reffing my fights. You’re going to let someone upkick me and then tell me that, ‘That was not a hard blow. Stop. Relax.’ What the heck? That was a hard blow. Watching it back, I was definitely wobbled.”
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Controversy aside, Barber’s return meant everything to her.
She hadn’t fought since March 2024, when she defeated Katlyn Cermenara.
“I was not a pleasant person to be around this camp,” Barber said. “I was not fun to be around. I was very angry. I was very aggressive. I was very, almost like bitter, in a way.
“I just wanted to make it to the fight. … I put all of my training partners and all the coaches through literal hell because of how much pent-up aggression and anger I had inside of me from having so many camps and not being able to fight, and just wanting to make everybody happy and proud.”
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With her momentum restored and her No. 5 ranking intact, Barber is now an interested observer as to how the top of the flyweight division plays out. UFC champion Valentina Shevchenko recently defended her belt against former strawweight titleholder Zhang Weili, while top contenders Natalia Silva and Rose Namajunas are slated to meet Jan. 24 to determine the next major player at 125 pounds.
Barber wants a title shot, but she also wants a specific name.
“At the top, there’s only so many of us,” Barber said.
“I want the belt. Whoever is in the way is going to get taken out. … You guys already know I’ve been calling for my rematch for a while against Alexa Grasso — would love to take that one out.”
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With UFC gold remaining Barber’s focus, Shevchenko has been the centerpiece of the division since Barber joined the UFC in 2018. The Zhang fight was one of the higher-profile collisions of Shevchenko’s career — billed as champion vs. champion, the matchup between two all-time greats ended up simply being another Shevchenko masterclass, as she defeated Zhang from pillar to post for five rounds.
Watching intently when it happened, Barber felt the result wasn’t a shock.
“I was kind of thinking it would be interesting to see if Weili is big enough,” Barber said, “but I wasn’t sure because Valentina doesn’t walk around that huge. She doesn’t have a big cut, from my understanding, so I wasn’t quite sure how that would go. But I didn’t think it would be a super exciting fight, if I’m honest. But I’m not shocked by the outcome. Valentina’s a great fighter, but I wasn’t really impressed.”
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Shevchenko’s performance drew criticism online for being on the duller side. While Barber didn’t go as far as to label the champion boring, she acknowledged that she does understand the approach.
“Valentina is not just going to go out there and do anything unnecessary,” Barber said. “She’s smart, so she’s going to do what she needs to do to win, and that’s all she needs to do.
“She’s the champion. She doesn’t have to go out and get the belt. She has to defend her belt. Now, does that necessarily make the UFC happy? I don’t know. I don’t think that that’s what the UFC really wants.”
Barber may have missed out on her goal of becoming the youngest champion in UFC history, but she still believes her time is coming. By this time next year, she said, she expects to be wearing gold.
