21-year-old Maycee Barber suffered more than just the first loss of her professional MMA career when she faced Roxanne Modafferi over the weekend at UFC 246.
Maycee’s father, Bucky Barber, told ESPN that he believes that the injury happened in the first ten seconds of the fight when Maycee stepped on Modafferi’s foot and heard her knee pop. She went on to continue for the rest of the fight, but was limping after round two and told her coaches that she’d hurt her knee. The ringside physician checked her knee and said that it was probably just a “partial, small ACL tear” and that the fighter would be fine to continue.
Barber ultimately lost the fight via decision, and now, she’s facing down the fact that she’ll need surgery for her torn ACL, which will take her out of competition for nine to twelve months. She shared headlines of her injury on her Instagram story, seeming to confirm the reports.
With the loss from this weekend, Barber’s record is now 8-1; Modafferi’s is 24-16.
