Maycee Barber dealt with some scary outside factors early in her MMA career.

For her first six fights as a pro, Barber, 24, fought as a strawweight amassing a perfect record that trailed into her start with the UFC. The current No. 12-ranked contender in the official UFC flyweight rankings hasn’t had consistent weight troubles in her career, but she has missed weight on two occasions in her 13 total bouts.

The first of those two misses came in just her second career outing in an LFA clash with Mallory Martin. Weighing in at 123.4 pounds for the scheduled 115-pound matchup, Barber reveals that she wasn’t in the most comfortable of spaces at the time.

“I had a pretty serious stalker situation which went on for about two-three years,” Barber told MiddleEasy. “At the time that I missed weight, that was when he was not in jail and he was somewhere in Denver and I was fighting in Denver so I was [under] super high stress. They had the SWAT after him, the security at the fight had a picture of him and knew, ‘Hey, this is the guy. Nobody lets this guy in.’ That happened during my weight cut so I was really stressed out. That’s not an excuse, I did what I could and I tried to make the weight and I missed the weight so that’s on me and I still wanted that fight so we made it work.

“But the end of that story is he’s in jail now. He’s being sentenced to like 10 years.”

Barber defeated her fellow future UFC roster member Martin via unanimous decision despite the troubles she faced. Her other lone career miss came in her following bout by 1.8 pounds and she’s since corrected these troubles by working alongside highly regarded nutritionist, Tyler Minton.

March 2023 is targeted as Barber’s return to action for a date with Andrea Lee to kick off her newly signed UFC contract. “The Future” shared that it’s a five or six-fight deal and she intends on returning to the strawweight division after a win over Lee.

In the meantime, don’t expect Barber to be openly interacting with strangers galore on social media any time soon. Thankfully, in her case, some justice has been served after things got out of hand.

“It’s not just me,” Barber said of issues female athletes face. “Every female athlete is gonna have that. Every female is gonna have that. This world is dark and dirty and I feel like social media has allowed people to just say whatever they want and have no repercussions whatsoever.

“I don’t read through messages and it sucks because there’s times where there’s messages from young girls, young people, that are good, but the stalker that I had was impersonating a young girl so it’s hard to really decipher and figure out who is who and what’s what. So to protect my own self, I just try not to respond at all. I feel like a lot of people are doing the negative stuff to get a reaction and if you give them that reaction it fuels that and they make up this stuff in their mind. But to avoid all the creepers and the gross people, I just can’t respond. I can’t do it anymore.”

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VIDEO STEW

Between the Links.

UFC Orlando preview.

Thompson and Holland go face-to-face.

Top UFC Orlando fighter finishes.

Free fights.

Techniques with DJ and CCC.

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LISTEN UP

Heck of a Morning. MMA Fighting’s Mike Heck discusses if a Conor McGregor vs. Artem Lobov fight would be big business for the UFC.

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SOCIAL MEDIA BOUILLABAISSE

Short stuff.

Rumble, young man, rumble.

Alright?

Ouch.

Ready.

Bullet art.

Hysterical.

QUIET, PAULO.

Squad.

Ejected.

Tarantula plus a pit.

And art.

Shocker.

Good old Gumby.

He kind of does.

Puppies bring opponents together.

Big-time Oscar gets fancy.

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FIGHT ANNOUNCEMENTS

Lucas Brennan (7-0) vs. Dre Miley (10-6); Bellator 289, Dec. 9

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FINAL THOUGHTS

I will say a Barber return to strawweight is pretty compelling at this point. She’s got a lot of fun options in both weight classes right now.

Happy Friday, gang. Have a great weekend and enjoy what’s a pretty nice on-paper UFC Orlando. Thanks for reading!

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EXIT POLL

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Source: https://www.mmafighting.com/ufc/2022/12/2/23488690/morning-report-maycee-barber-details-serious-stalker-situation-they-had-the-swat-after-him-ufc?rand=96749