Valentina Shevchenko calls for professionalism after Maycee Barber's fight night withdrawal
UFC women's flyweight champion Valentina Shevchenko believes Maycee Barber's medical issue could be related to her weight cut.
Barber (14-2 MMA, 9-2 UFC) withdrew from her UFC on ESPN 68 headliner against Erin Blanchfield (13-2 MMA, 7-1 UFC) this past Saturday at the UFC Apex in Las Vegas just 30 minutes before she was scheduled to make the walk. She was transported to the hospital and still requires more medical testing to find out exactly what happened.
Although Barber missed the non-title flyweight limit by half a pound, she doesn't believe her medical issue is weight-cut related. However, Shevchenko does.
"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."
Shevchenko thinks after all the pre-fight hype and build-up, fighters have an obligation to make the walk.
"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."
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