Erin Blanchfield felt ‘justified’ with anger towards Maycee Barber, ‘definitely don’t plan on rebooking with her’

UFC Fight Night: Blanchfield v Barber Weigh-In — Photo by Chris Unger/Zuffa LLC

Erin Blanchfield holds no ill will towards Maycee Barber but she’s not filled with regret about lashing out at her opponent after learning that their fight was cancelled just seconds before walking to the cage.

This past Saturday night at UFC Vegas 107, Blanchfield was standing in the doorway about to march to the octagon for her main event fight when UFC chief business officer Hunter Campbell stopped her and shared the unfortunate news that Barber suffered a medical emergency and the bout was off. Afterwards, Blanchfield lashed out at Barber and said she needed get things in order because “she’s a complete mess in every aspect of her entire life.”

While Barber disagreed with that statement after issuing an apology for falling out of the fight, Blanchfield doesn’t have any regrets about how she handed the situation considering how everything played out that night.

“I don’t wish her any illness,” Blanchfield told MMA Fighting. “We’ve had our back and forth but it’s purely about fighting. I was just upset. I mean as someone that loves competing, I’ve been competing as a kid, I want to do that so when I got that close and couldn’t do it, it’s just so disappointing. It almost feels defeating in a sense. So it did feel like pretty intense to go do media right after that.

“I think I was justified being upset in the moment. Now it’s been a couple of days, she’s apologized and it’s whatever. I would like to move on from that fight and get something else going.”

Blanchfield admits she was almost in shock when she first learned that the fight was off. It actually took her a few moments to fully grasp the news that she wouldn’t be competing and her night was done without throwing a single punch.

“When [Hunter Campbell] told me the fight was off, I feel like I was still in disbelief,” Blanchfield said. “They’re like ‘let’s take your gloves off’ and I was like no, I can’t, I haven’t fought yet! I can’t take them off. It was trippy for sure.

“I feel like it’s just very deflating. You’re just left with all this pent up energy and emotions and ready to go and then it all just has nowhere to go. It’s just kind of like all still pent up. So it was pretty weird leaving the APEX without having any type of relief. Like win or lose, you still went through something if you fought. It was kind of weird going through that.”

Weeks before the fight was supposed to take place, Blanchfield told MMA Fighting that she had concerns about booking the matchup against Barber after she fell out of a previously scheduled matchup and then sat out for over a year dealing with a mysterious medical condition.

Barber called the comments “ignorant” but Blanchfield definitely wasn’t trying to be proven correct with what happened this past Saturday night.

“I was concerned leading up to the fight,” Blanchfield said. “I thought maybe a week or two weeks out from the fight [she might drop out] like she’s done previous. I didn’t expect by the time we got to fight week and that we basically went through everything, I mean she was even at the arena, ready to go. That I didn’t really expect.

“I know she had some type of health problem in the locker room but it’s kind of out of her control. I guess I knew I had said it previously but by the time the fight was so close, I didn’t think it was going to happen then.”

Once the fight was cancelled, the UFC ultimately paid Blanchfield her full paycheck including a win bonus plus it turns out she still took a percentage of the Barber’s purse after she missed weight the day before the event was scheduled to take place.

“Definitely appreciative the UFC did the right thing, they were able to pay me out,” Blanchfield said. “Like my show and win money. I still got part of her money for missing weight. In that way, they still squared away with me but I would have definitely still wanted to perform and to be able to prove myself in the division. I guess I’m going to have to wait until another time for that.

“I still got the money — I mean I did do basically everything. I just couldn’t do the last part because she wasn’t available or healthy. But hopefully we’ll figure it out soon.”

Considering everything that unfolded at UFC Vegas 107, Blanchfield eventually fighting Barber would create quite a storyline for the promotion but it’s not something the 26-year-old New Jersey native has plans to revisit.

While she hopes Barber gets the help she needs to eventually return to action, Blanchfield is moving forward with her career and focusing on new opportunities.

“I definitely don’t plan on rebooking with her,” Blanchfield said. “This is the second fight that fell through and I know she’s had her problems but that’s part of the reason — if she is that ill and needs time or can’t be consistent or reliable because of it — that’s something that I don’t want to be involved in.”

Erin Blanchfield felt ‘justified’ with anger towards Maycee Barber, ‘definitely don’t plan on rebooking with her’

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