UFC On ESPN 68 main eventer Maycee Barber suffered a seizure just as she was set to make her walk in for her fight against Erin Blanchfield last night, leading to the fight being cancelled.
The pre-fight video footage had already rolled live on ESPN when word suddenly emerged from backstage that Barber wasn’t going to be able to fight.
“I’m still getting details but all I know is that she is not walking to the Octagon right now,” UFC commentator Brendan Fitzgerald said.
“This is truly unprecedented and for me, for a main event prepared to make the introductions and she’s not there to walk right now.”
It then emerged that the 27-year-old Barber had suffered a seizure and she was then transported to hospital for medical evaluation.
A day earlier Barber had failed to make weight for the fight by just half a pound, but the fight was still scheduled to go ahead.
Barber had headed into the fight after a 14 month layoff due to a mystery illness that despite a hospital stay and battery of tests remains undiagnosed.
However, Barber had claimed to be back to 100%. It’s unclear if last night’s issue was connected to that prior illness or not at this stage.
Meanwhile, Barber’s opponent Blanchfield has lived up to her ‘Cold Blooded’ nickname by having little empathy for her rival.
“I feel like I’m still pretty in disbelief right now,” Blanchfield said. “I feel like I was in disbelief yesterday when she missed weight because we knew about this fight since January. You could have been 50 pounds overweight and still made weight. She missed weight and gets to Saturday and the locker room, I’m ready to go and she’s supposed to be ready to go. Supposedly, she has all these health issues when we’re supposed to fight. I think it’s pretty unprofessional. I wouldn’t want to fight her again. … I was told she had a seizure in the locker room, that’s what I was told.
“… When she missed weight yesterday, I didn’t care, I was going to take her money. I was going to take her win money too.
“She needs to look at another division,” Blanchfield added. “She needs to fix her life. She needs to fix herself. I think she’s a mess in every aspect of her entire life.”
