UFC News: Maycee Barber confident about taking down Champions Valentina Shevchenko and Weili Zhang
With zero losses and seven professional wins under her belt — two of them in the UFC — Maycee Barber is positive about defeating the current Flyweight Champion Valentina Shevchenko, even if she had to fight her right now.
With her eyes on breaking Jon Jones’ record of becoming the youngest UFC Champion in history, the 21-year-old is full of confidence in her abilities in the octagon and still has two more years to reach her goal.
Barber’s thoughts on a title shot
At Wednesday’s UFC on ESPN 6 media day, Barber shared that she truly believes she can win the bout if offered a title shot, but she would rather wait out two years and meet the Champion at her best when she can dominate instead of simply fighting.
“Technically, I believe if I was offered the fight with Valentina tomorrow I’d go in there and I truly believe I could win that fight and I could do everything to go out there and to win that fight and I believe it would be a fight and I believe that I would win that title, but why do it right now? Why not take the next couple years and not just go out there and fight her, but go out there and dominate her.”
She feels the same way as well about the title holder of her previous weight class. Although a few issues with 115 pounds made her jump to 125 pounds, she believes that defeating the Strawweight Champion Weili Zhang would not be a difficult task for her either. In fact, she said that it would be an easier contest for her compared to Shevchenko, whom she does not want to engage in a “back-and-forth brawl” but defeat in a “beatdown”.
She also revealed that she is taking one fight after another in the hope that it will get her the title shot and allow her to fight and achieve her lifelong goal of becoming the youngest Champion ever.
“It’s kind of a hard question to answer because I don’t know (how many more fights until a title shot). I’m fighting again and then I’m fighting Gillian and I’m taking this fight then I’m taking the next one. If it happens to be two fights from now or three fights from now I really don’t care. As long as it’s within my dates.”
Barber is fighting Gillian Robertson next at UFC on ESPN 6 on October 18, Friday, at TD Garden, Boston in Massachusetts.
Credits to MMA Junkie for the quotes.
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