NASHVILLE – After an eye-popping debut, Maycee Barber called out an old rival in Mackenzie Dern.
Now that Dern is pregnant and unlikely to return to MMA any time soon, Barber’s wish to face the jiu-jitsu will have to wait, and it may never happen. But she’s not too discouraged.
“I’m not bummed at all,” Barber (6-0 MMA, 1-0 UFC) said in advance of her flyweight fight against J.J. Aldrich (7-2 MMA, 3-1 UFC) at UFC on ESPN+ 6, which takes place Saturday at Bridgestone Arena. “The only reason I wanted to fight her was because of LFA. I wanted to fight her in LFA and that’s always going to be a great story. If someone calls out someone from LFA when they were in another promotion and they were kind of ducking them.
“Now that she’s pregnant and is going to have a kid and has a life, I’m happy for her on this next piece of her journey. I have nothing bad to say. That’s exciting for her. If she comes back to fighting then that’s good. Props to her.”
Barber’s opinion of Dern might not be the most flattering. So if Dern returns to the octagon with a newfound motivation courtesy of her child, she would again raise her hand.
“You could totally build that up,” Barber said. “But we’ll see.”
There’s at least one good example on the UFC roster that’s bounced back with even more fire, she added.
“Michelle Waterson, she’s a solid fighter and she fights for her daughter and her family and that could be another beneficial thing for Mackenzie if she does decide to fight again is the fact she has someone else she’s fighting for and to benefit,” Barber said. “If she does come back I think it’ll make her a better fighter. But life is crazy and it could change a lot.”
For more on the upcoming UFC on ESPN+ 6, check out the UFC Rumors section of the site.
