‘I really don’t remember a whole lot’

Maycee Barber says she’s OK after suffering a scary knockout
loss to Alexa Grasso. | Getty/UFC

It’s hard to blame Maycee
Barber for avoiding social media following her brutal knockout loss to Alexa
Grasso at
UFC Seattlethis past Saturday.

Grasso sat Barber down with a laser-like straight left, spinning
her opponent around in the process. She landed one more quick shot
to the chin before deftly locking in a rear-naked choke on Barber,
who was already out. After the bout was halted, Barber lay
motionless on the canvas for several minutes before leaving the
Octagon under her own power. The official result of the fight was a
knockout, because it was determined that Barber was unconscious
once the submission was applied.

While her team initially took to social media to provide an

update on the fighter’s condition, Barber would later issue her
own video statement via Instagram.

“Well this is not the post or video that I wanted to be making
today,” Barber said. “But I wanted to come on here and say thank
you to the UFC and thank you to Alexa for the opportunity. 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’s a
phenomenal fighter.

“I don’t really remember a whole lot. All I know is 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 social media but I
also wanted to come on here and tell you guys that I am OK.”

Grasso defeated Barber via unanimous decision in their first
meeting at UFC 258 in February 2021. “The Future” had compiled a
seven-bout
UFC winning streak since that defeat, raising expectations that
she could be on the verge of securing a flyweight title shot.
Instead, Barber suffered a scary KO defeat that left most observers
more concerned for her health than her standing in the 125-pound
division.

‘I Will Be Back’

Though the end result was not what she planned, Barber was still
grateful to be able to get a chance to run it back against Grasso
at UFC Seattle.

“I am very blessed to live the life that I do,” Barber said. “As
tough as it is, going out there and being able to do what I did
last night was still one of the greatest nights of my life. Despite
all of that, that’s still one of the better nights of my life that
I’ve ever had. I’ve had some pretty tough days so that was still
one of the greatest days of my life. Being able to walk out there
and being able to do what I’ve done.

“I will be back. I’m going to heal up and put in the work and get
back out there. I’m very thankful to everyone who has supported me,
everyone who has watched me grow, watched me win, watched me lose,
watched me fall and who’s going to watch me win again. Thank you
guys all for the love and support and I will be back.”