Rivalries: Maycee Barber

Maycee Barber may have lost much of the momentum that marked her arrival, but she remains a key piece of the Ultimate Fighting Championship’s future.

The Team Alpha Male rep will seek her second win in as many appearances when she takes on Montana De La Rosa in a UFC Fight Night 205 women’s flyweight feature on Saturday at the UFC Apex. Barber, 23, has compiled a 4-2 record across six appearances inside the Octagon. She last competed at UFC on ESPN 27, where she eked out a split decision over Miranda Maverick on July 24.

As Barber centers her attention on De La Rosa, a look at some of the rivalries that have helped shape her brief but eventful career to this point:

Jamie Colleen

Barber netted an Ultimate Fighting Championship contract when she systematically dismantled and put away the former King of the Cage champion with elbows in the third round of their women’s strawweight attraction during Season 2 of Dana White’s Contender Series on July 17, 2018 at the UFC Training Center in Las Vegas. Colleen succumbed to blows 4:15 into Round 3 after being thoroughly outclassed. Barber employed a multi-pronged approach—she kicked effectively at all levels with both legs—but did some of her best work in the clinch, where she battered her opponent with standing elbows, forearm strikes and knees to the body at close range. The Matt Pena protege integrated takedowns in the second and third rounds, giving Colleen yet another weapon about which to worry. Late in Round 3, Barber delivered a trip takedown, assumed a dominant posture in top position and started driving elbows into her counterpart’s face. One of the strikes tore open a cut across the bridge of Colleen’s nose and prompted referee Herb Dean to intervene.

J.J. Aldrich

Barber kept her perfect professional record intact when she disposed of the Colorado native with punches in the second round of their UFC Fight Night 148 women’s flyweight showcase on March 23, 2019 at Bridgestone Arena in Nashville, Tennessee. On a three-fight winning streak at the time, Aldrich bowed out 3:01 into Round 2. Barber navigated some considerable difficulty to remain undefeated. Aldrich sat her down with a clean straight left inside the first 30 seconds of the first round and spent the rest of the frame picking her apart from the outside, as she countered effectively and piled up points with multi-punch combinations. Barber turned the tables in the middle stanza, where she buckled Aldrich with an overhand left, swarmed with punches, reset after breaking free from the clinch and sealed the deal with another burst of punches along the fence.

Roxanne Modafferi

The Syndicate MMA standout leaned on takedowns, positional control and heavy ground-and-pound, as she upset the previously unbeaten and heavily favored Barber by unanimous decision in the featured UFC 246 prelim on Jan. 18, 2020 at T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas. Modafferi was awarded 30-27, 30-27 and 30-26 nods from the judges. Barber spent much of the first round pinned beneath “The Happy Warrior,” but her situation took an ominous turn in the second. After absorbing a Modafferi jab, the 21-year-old’s left knee appeared to buckle underneath her. Modafferi moved into top position, sliced open the stricken prospect with a well-placed elbow strike that had blood flowing freely. Barber retreated to her corner with a visible limp between rounds, clearly compromised by her injured knee. Modafferi struck for a takedown in the third round, took advantage of the situation, extracted herself from an attempted keylock and chewed up the remaining time with effective grappling. Afterward, it was revealed that Barber had sustained a complete ACL tear. She did not fight again for more than a year.

Alexa Grasso

The Lobo Gym star pocketed the most significant win of her 16-fight career in the UFC 258 co-main event, where she took a unanimous decision from Barber on Feb. 13, 2021 at the UFC Apex in Las Vegas. All three cageside judges scored it 29-28 for Grasso. It marked Barber’s first appearance since she tore her ACL in the aforementioned loss to Modafferi. Grasso kept her off-stride with crisp punching combinations while also proving to be surprisingly effective in the clinch and on the ground. She surprised Barber in the second round, where she conceded a takedown, then swept into top position under threat of an armbar. Grasso attacked with shoulder strikes from half guard, hunted an arm-triangle and ultimately maneuvered onto the Dana White Contender Series graduate’s back. Barber made an admirable push in Round 3, where she hit the accelerator, connected with sweeping hooks with both hands and remained the aggressor. Still, the effort was not enough to dig her out of a two-rounds-to-none hole.