UFC 276 Fighter to Watch: Maycee Barber

Despite a few stumbles, DWCS graduate remains a quality prospect in the flyweight ranks heading into clash with Jessica Eye

Name: Maycee Barber
Nickname: The Future
Record: 10-2 overall; 5-2 UFC
Division: Flyweight
Team: Team Alpha Male
Opponent: Jessica Eye (15-10, 1 NC overall, 5-9, 1 NC UFC)

Barber is a prime example of a prospect that was brought along too quickly, stumbled, and is now in the process of regrouping.

She’s not the first, she won’t be the last, but that doesn’t mean it’s still not really important to go through why it happened, what went wrong, and what she needs to do in order to continue moving forward and keep climbing the divisional ladder.

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The trouble with christening yourself “The Future” and making a point of constantly talking about how you’re going to break Jon Jones’ record for being the youngest champion in UFC history is that it can become a weight on your shoulders and create unreasonable expectations that are, quite frankly, impossible to live up to unless you are legitimately on that Jon Jones tier of preternatural talents, and Barber is not.

It’s not that athletes shouldn’t be full of confidence or afraid to put their goals out there — have at it — but doing so put Barber in the fast lane from the minute she joined the UFC roster, and while she’d had nothing but success up to that point, she was also still just a kid with a handful of fights against a bunch of solid competitors, the best of whom (Mallory Martin) went on to struggle with finding consistent success in the Octagon and was subsequently released.

Even in those early UFC appearances, the need to pump the brakes with Barber were apparent, not because she wasn’t talented or didn’t show upside, but because her fight with JJ Aldrich was a lot tougher than I think people had anticipated it would be, there was plenty of talent already present in the flyweight division, and — and I can’t stress this enough — she was still a kid with seven fights to her name. What was the hurry?

Yes, I know the answer was her desire to chase Jon Jones’ record, but do you see why setting such an excruciatingly difficult goal for yourself can be setting yourself up for all kinds of trouble?

Contrast Barber’s approach and early booking against that of the other fighter on Saturday’s UFC 276 fight card sporting the nickname “The Future,” Ian Garry. While Barber came in shouting about being the youngest champ ever, Garry told everyone to press pause, noting that he was young, needed time to develop, and would get around to being champion when he was ready to be champion. Folks are still interested to track his development and watch as he makes his third appearance this weekend against Gabriel Green, but there isn’t this additional weight on his shoulders to move forward at a quicker pace or rush to dive into the deep end when it’s still not clear how strong of a swimmer he is, which is precisely what Barber did.

The Roxanne Modafferi fight was supposed to be a big name assignment that Barber could win and use as a catapult to bigger and better opportunities, but right out of the gate, before the knee injury even occurred, Modafferi was getting the better of things on the feet because Barber isn’t a great athlete, doesn’t have great technique, and, once more, is still just a kid with limited experience, while Modafferi started fighting five years after Barber was born.

Facing Alexa Grasso in her first fight post-ACL repair was a mistake as well, as the former Invicta FC darling had looked terrific in her flyweight debut, has a comparable pedigree with greater experience and superior results, and was the much better athlete of the two. Grasso blew Barber out of the water and made it crystal clear that “The Future” had a lot of things to work on if she wanted to be a contender.

Barber is 2-0 since then and once again moving in the right direction.

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Through that early run of her UFC career, Barber kept bouncing around to different gyms, working with different teams, getting different looks, and I think it hurt her development.

While we see plenty of fighters spend time at different gyms and switch up their training camps, most of them do it once they’ve already got the fundamentals on lock, a base camp set up with a quality crew they’re comfortable with and can always return to, and with specific aims in mind, like working on a certain skill or training with a specific partner.

Barber seemed to be doing it aimlessly, looking for the right fit without sticking around long enough to actually establish a fit. She’s now been at Team Alpha Male for a couple camps and it’s not surprising that we’re starting to see positive improvements, as she’s had a chance to build a rapport with the coaches there; to formulate an approach that works for her both in the gym and in the cage, and is designed to help her develop as a fighter while being successful each time out.

And Alpha Male feels like the right place for Barber because she’s not the best athlete or a fluid, diverse striker — she’s actually at her best when she’s working as a tenacious bulldog using her strength to muscle people along the fence, landing elbows in tight, and being grimy as hell, and the grappling-heavy approach at TAM should give her plenty of ways to get inside and do what she does best.

Note: if I could send Barber anywhere to train — no questions asked, no concerns about who else is there and whatnot — it’d be Xtreme Couture because she really should just be deploying the approach of the gym’s namesake every time out — get in tight, fight in a phone booth, and muck things up like Randy Couture did for the vast majority of his career, because like Randy, Barber is mostly in trouble when she’s out in space.

Barber has already started to get there though, and we saw it last fight.

There were flashes of that grittiness, that grimy approach in her debated win over Miranda Maverick, but when she fought Montana De La Rosa earlier this year, it was on full display. She wasn’t trying to strike and be a kickboxer out at range against the longer, rangier De La Rosa; she closed the distance and bullied her in tight, mashing her with elbows and short shots where her length wasn’t an issue.

It was honestly the best, most complete performance of her career, and one that showed Barber can still be a long-term factor in this division if she continues progressing and sticking to what serves her best inside the Octagon.

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Saturday’s fight with Eye is the perfect matchup to see if Barber has committed to being the fighter we saw against De La Rosa last time out, because even though she’s on a three-fight slide and has a surprisingly quite poor record inside the Octagon, the veteran from Cleveland is still capable enough to win a boxing match against the less fluid, less dynamic Barber.

This is a fight where Barber should, in my opinion, work exclusively inside, along the fence, and —best case scenario — on the ground, where she can rough up Eye, get physical with her, and frustrate her to no end. Being at range with her affords the veteran opportunities to land, and I while I think Barber has a bushel of toughness and grit, none of that matters if you’re getting picked apart on the outside.

The road to victory here is comparable to the way current bantamweight champ Julianna Pena fought Eye years ago at UFC 192 in Houston — maul her, grind on her, put her shoulders on the mat and mash your elbow into her face a bunch. Pena is actually a great blueprint for Barber in general because she isn’t a dynamic athlete, nor does she have much power or fluidity in her hands, but she’s gritty, she’s tenacious, and she fights to her strengths at all times.

This is a winnable fight for Barber, and I still think she should develop into a fixture in the Top 10 over the next few years because her toughness and tenacity will always serve her well in the Octagon, and the skills should keep improving along the way.

She got thrust into the spotlight too soon and had a couple stumbles, but I think Barber is finally on the way to becoming the best version of herself in the cage.

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