Kamal Usman knows everything about the pressures of a big fight, so he has some perspective when it comes to Maysey Barber not taking a walk in the Octagon last Saturday.
Having won six straight wins, Barber was scheduled to face Erin Blanchfield in the flyweight contender’s match in the main event of the UFC Vegas 107. However, just before the headliner was about to kick off, it was announced that Barber had withdrawn from the match due to health issues.
Naturally frustrated, Blanchfield later told reporters that she had no plans to rebook the matchup, accusing the barber of “complete confusion in every aspect of her life.”
To him Pounds – 4 pounds The podcast, Usman, shared his thoughts on Saturday about what happened.
“It was a very confusing situation,” Usman said. “They interviewed Erin Blanchefield after the fight, and she wasn’t really wrong. Really whatever she said in that interview. On Friday, Macy missed half a pound of weight and didn’t try it.
Usman isn’t just talking as an outside observer. He had attended some of Barber’s training sessions, so from what he saw, Barber seemed ready to make a statement. Instead, Barber was pulled out of his second straight fight after retreating from his matchup with Rosenama Junas in July 2024.
Longtime welterweight champion Usman recalls his own struggles with passing the curtains and taking that step on a fight night.
“The crazy thing is that you can see Macy Barber’s train for this fight,” Usman said. “She was working hard. She was training really hard. She had an amazing training partner. I saw her doing great drilling. … This was amazing.
“I don’t know what happened back there. Erin Blanchfield was told she had seizures. Sometimes you get those anxiety. Hey, we all get those anxiety. Everyone thinks we do other things and we are all human. When you get in there, it’s very, very difficult to crave.”
It’s no one’s guess when the barbers compete again. In a statement following the cancellation of the UFC Vegas 107 main event, the 27-year-old apologized to the UFC and Branchfield, adding, “We’re coming back to the bottom of all that.”
For now, Barber probably has to accept that her reputation received another hit in the court of public opinion.
“We’re all nervous about it, but that’s part of being an expert,” Usman said. “This is part of being at UFC, the largest and most well-known organization in the world. I hope that once I get to this stage, I’ve done all my work to be able to hone all these jitter, all of these emotions.
“So, if that happened, Erin wasn’t necessarily wrong. Maybe Maise might have to look at sports psychos or someone to hone everything. But it didn’t look good.