Shortly before Barber withdrew, there was a video posted by Dana White online, and well, it’s got many people talking.
It’s a Facebook reel, you can click on the image or here.
You’ll notice in the video that she looks good, moves well, and has steady feet.
Whatever happened after the video, it sure seems like word is getting out because women’s flyweight champion Valentina Shevchenko has politely called Barber out.
Despite looking like death and missing weight by half a pound, Barber claimed that she didn’t believe her health issue was related to her cut.
Mayce Barber misses weight at 126.5lbs and looks DRAINED… The fight will still happen though pic.twitter.com/tHaUkd3iXc
— Emiel Sardarean (@Standemup) May 30, 2025
Shevchenko, isn’t buying it.
“Of course, everyone is now saying like, the health issue and they are seeing results, right? And definitely we all wish (Barber) a speedy recovery,” Shevchenko told The Schmo. “The health is No. 1 for every athlete, but let’s not forget that we are professional fighters, and we have to do everything. Not starting fight week, not starting one day before the weigh-in. We have to start it back. If we know that the weight cut will affect us somehow, we have to put our efforts to make it smoother.”
“You kind of like think what you have to do to make everyone not disappointed, what you have to put on a list when everyone is so attentive watching you. We have to be professionals, and not professional only in the last week,” Shevchenko said. “We have to start it like, back, back over there, when we just hear the notice when our fight is going to be, then we start our like, going slowly down our weight cut, and if we know it’s going to be affected, we have to take some measures to not be affected by circumstances. This is what I call professionalism.”
