Saturday’s UFC Fight Night main event took a bizarre turn when the fight was canceled as cage walks were about to start. Maycee Barber was forced to pull out of the fight at the absolute last minute, leaving opponent Erin Blanchfield without an opponent for the Las Vegas headliner.
On the broadcast for the event, it was announced that Barber was no longer medically cleared to compete after the video package had played to hype up the main event.
The news came one day after Barber had missed weight for the fight by half of a pound, appearing in poor shape while stepping on the scale.
Blanchfield addressed the situation at the press conference after the event and did not hold back on Barber despite reports that Barber had suffered a seizure shortly before attempting to make her walk to the Octagon.
“I feel like I’m still pretty in disbelief right now,” Blanchfield said. “I feel like I was in disbelief yesterday when she missed weight because we knew about this fight since January. You could have been 50 pounds overweight and still made weight. She missed weight and gets to Saturday and the locker room, I’m ready to go and she’s supposed to be ready to go. Supposedly, she has all these health issues when we’re supposed to fight. I think it’s pretty unprofessional. I wouldn’t want to fight her again. … I was told she had a seizure in the locker room, that’s what I was told.
“… When she missed weight yesterday, I didn’t care, I was going to take her money. I was going to take her win money too.”
Blanchfield’s message to Barber was clear, telling her planned opponent that it’s time to abandon the women’s flyweight division in no uncertain terms.
“She needs to look at another division,” Blanchfield said. “She needs to fix her life. She needs to fix herself. I think she’s a mess in every aspect of her entire life.”
