Maycee Barber believes that she holds the mixed-martial-arts career of Paige VanZant in the palm of her hands.
After extending her undefeated record to 8-0 after defeating Gilian Robertson at UFC on ESPN 6, Maycee Barber would go on to do what she has done in the Octagon before and what she has been doing for months on interviews and social media: call out Paige VanZant.
VanZant recently expressed interest in replacing Joanna Jedrzejczyk to face Michelle Waterson at UFC Tampa when there was speculation of whether or not Jedrzejczyk would be able to make weight for the fight, and this revealed to Barber that VanZant is available. Maycee Barber proposed to put an end to the vacancy in her Octagon interview on Friday.
Another competitor Maycee Barber has called out in the past is Mackenzie Dern. In a recent interview, Dern explained why she has singled out those two names in the past:
“They’re the hype,” Barber said in an interview with The Schmo. “Everyone says that I have a lot of hype behind me, but it’s real. I go out there, I fight, I finish. Hype is when you have a big following but you don’t have the fighting capabilities. So I truly believe that they don’t have it, and I have what it takes to beat them up.”
Mackenzie Dern’s hype surely took a hit after her loss to Amanda Ribas at UFC Tampa, but she still continues to make headlines even in defeat, something Paige VanZant has also managed to do after losing. Unlike Dern, though, VanZant is coming off of a victory in her last fight, defeating Rachael Ostovich at UFC on ESPN 1 at the beginning of the year. Maycee Barber claims that her Octagon call-out of VanZant on Friday will not be her last unless VanZant picks up the phone:
“I’m gonna keep calling her until she decides to fight,” Barber assured. And if VanZant continues to express disinterest in facing Barber, then Barber seems to carry the belief that the UFC would sit on VanZant’s contract, essentially making it a “Barber or Retirement” ultimatum for VanZant:
“Then she’ll never fight again,” Barber stated when asked what would happen if VanZant refused to fight her. “She’s got one fight left on the UFC contract.”
Maycee Barber believes that she is that one fight. Barber has been outspoken about her goal of becoming the youngest UFC champion of all time, though, so waiting for a lower-ranked opponent is probably not the best way to top Jon Jones’s record.
What’s your take on Maycee Barber’s remark that if Paige VanZant does not fight her, she’ll never fight again?
