Maycee Barber has said she would “maul” Paige VanZant and wants to prove she “doesn’t belong in the position she’s in” with the UFC.
VanZant (8-4) has one fight to run on her contract and has begged UFC president Dana White to give her a fight.
The undefeated Barber (8-0) won her third straight UFC fight inside TD Garden in Boston last weekend, knocking out Gillian Robertson, and would be happy to oblige.
“I view her as someone who is so beatable. She does not belong in the position that she is in with UFC because there are so many other girls out there like me who work our butts off day in and day out. And I would maul her. So, I want to take that from her,” Barber told Ariel Helwani’s MMA Show.
“At first it was just a fight I really wanted. She’s got a big following. She has the social media, the fans that a lot of people want to see,” said “The Future”.
“The way I look at it is that she didn’t hold up her end of the deal. She came into the UFC and UFC backed her. They gave her all of the support and built her as an athlete.”
VanZant has found most of her fame outside the Octagon, finishing as a runner-up on Dancing with the Stars in 2016. She has also written an autobiography and been featured in the 2019 edition of the Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Edition, and recently claimed she makes more money posing on Instagram than fighting.
“They [the UFC] viewed her as a girl, who is beautiful, talented, well-spoken and she has all of these things and we think she can fight. So they built her up and she didn’t hold her end of the deal,” Barber added.
“She didn’t continue to evolve as a fighter. Instead, she fell into the fame, which is great for her if that’s the path she wants to take.”
