US-born UFC fighter Maycee Barber has had dangerous run-ins with a stalker during her MMA career. This stalker was caught, arrested, and has been sentenced to ten years behind bars.
In an interview with Middle Easy, Maycee Barber explained the situation:
“I had a pretty serious stalker situation which went on for about two-three years. 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.’“
This occurrence happened in 2018 when Barber faced Hannah Cifers in Denver, USA. She continued:
“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.” [Transcript courtesy of MMA Fighting]
See the full interview below:
Maycee Barber says most female UFC athletes can relate
Maycee Barber went on to add that every female athlete in the UFC would likely have a similar story to hers. She added:
“It’s not just me. 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.”
Currently, in the octagon, Barber is on a three-fight win streak. She has impressive wins over Jessica Eye, Montana De La Rosa, and Miranda Maverick. At merely the age of 24, she has eight fights in the UFC and is a notable fighter to keep an eye on. She will likely be back in early 2023.