Cage fighter Maycee Barber has vowed to carry on competing despite being involved in a horror sequence of events that left fans reeling over the weekend.
American star Barber, 27, was on the end of a shocking KO by Mexican rival Alexa Grasso at UFC Fight NIght 271 in Seattle on Saturday night, in which she was left flat on her back unconscious for a full minute.
In scenes shown live on television across America and beyond, Barber appeared to be knocked out cold by a punch midway through the first round, only for her opponent to pounce and begin to choke her out.
Barber appeared unconscious before she hit the ground, and the referee rushed to her aid to stop the fight and end her suffering as Grasso began to tighten a grip around her neck.
In scary scenes, a stricken Barber then appeared to try and grab the referee for assistance, wrapping her arms around his legs before he laid her out on her back in the middle of the cage, much to the viewers’ concern.
The American flyweight then lay with her arms spread wide and her eyes open as she remained unconscious on the mat, with medics rushing to help her.
After a few moments, Barber was able to leave the cage without any support and even returned to the Octagon as Grasso was announced as the victor.
The American has now taken to Instagram to reflect on the defeat, admitting that she is staying off social media with clips of the vicious KO inflicted against her going viral.
‘Well this is not the post or video that I wanted to be making today,’ Barber said. ‘But I wanted to come on here and say thank you to the UFC and thank you to Alexa for the opportunity. I wanted to go out there and get my opportunity to get my rematch and dominate and get the win back and unfortunately, it was not my night. I got caught and Alexa did an amazing thing. She’s a phenomenal fighter.
‘I don’t really remember a whole lot. All I know is every time I go on social media I look like I’m dead and that’s not a very fun thing to see. So I’ve been trying to stay off social media but I also wanted to come on here and tell you guys that I am OK.’
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Barber added that she is proud of the way she competed and that this is not the end of her fighting journey, despite concerns for her welfare.
‘I am very blessed to live the life that I do,’ Barber said. ‘As tough as it is, going out there and being able to do what I did last night was still one of the greatest nights of my life. Despite all of that, that’s still one of the better nights of my life that I’ve ever had. I’ve had some pretty tough days so that was still one of the greatest days of my life. Being able to walk out there and being able to do what I’ve done.
‘I will be back. I’m going to heal up and put in the work and get back out there. I’m very thankful to everyone who has supported me, everyone who has watched me grow, watched me win, watched me lose, watched me fall and who’s going to watch me win again. Thank you guys all for the love and support and I will be back.’
UFC president Dana White, who has long insisted that his job is to ‘sell holy s*** moments’, celebrated the knockout as one of the best he’s ever seen.
‘I think it is one of the greatest in sports history, let alone this year, tonight or whatever,’ White said during the UFC Seattle post-fight press conference. ‘It was incredible.’
