- Maycee Barber recalled her traumatic experience with pneumonia after her UFC 299 victory
- “The Future” believes her tough UFC 299 training camp contributed to her pain
Maycee Barber opened up about her strange and terrifying experience with pneumonia following UFC 299.
It was an exhausting stretch
Speaking to Sportskeeda MMA, “The Future” looked back at her “exhausting” and “scary” ordeal with pneumonia. According to Barber, it started when she felt extreme pain in her leg but she was certain it wasn’t from the fight she just had with Katlyn Cerminara at UFC 299.
She was then rushed to the emergency where several tests were done to her but to no avail. They even changed doctors but there was still no concrete diagnosis and all she could remember was the pain and constant fever.
Barber spent a total of nine days in the hospital and eventually, doctors figured it was pneumonia.
“Pneumonia was kind of like the last topper for everything else that was going on. It’s kind of crazy, obviously I fought Saturday and then Sunday I spent like a little bit of time on the beach and then I decided to fly to Colorado on Monday and when I got to Colorado I spent the day, woke up the next day in the morning and my leg… my skin was hurting and I couldn’t figure it out. There was no bruise on my leg Saturday or Sunday… They (UFC medical personnel) thought maybe it was a blood clot.” Barber recalled.
“I went to urgent care, they took a look… When I got in the car, I was in so much pain… We went to the emergency room and, by that point, I was like, 102, 103 fever,” Barber continued. “They started running tests… They didn’t really have any answers. Couldn’t figure it out so they sent me home.”
“I don’t understand what this is because it wasn’t like anything like I had got kicked or I had kicked her like, I couldn’t figure it out because there was no bruise on my leg on Saturday, Sunday, Monday, like nothing,” she described.
“They kept trying to get the fever down, it lasted for like three, four days that they couldn’t get the fever to like reduced and it’s exhausting like I think I went TMI but I went like pee like once in like two, three days. It was insane like my body was just in a rough shape. It was scary honestly like my leg was in so much pain and I was in rough shape… I spent nine days in the hospital and luckily you know I had an amazing group of people that was taking care of me,” she added.
“The two things that crossed my mind were, one, that I could potentially lose my leg. The other part was, there was a night… day three, four, or five. I was laying in the bed and they had given me some sort of medication that did not mix well with my body. My blood pressure dropped, heart rate dropped, oxygen dropped… They had to keep me awake to the point where I didn’t think I was gonna make it through the night.”
It could be because of the tough camp
When asked if she ever noticed anything unusual about her condition heading into UFC 299, Barber revealed that she felt excruciating pain in her neck and head. Looking back, “The Future” said she couldn’t tell if it was because of the tough training camp she endured but perhaps it took a toll on her body.
“The only thing that I noticed that I had in common [after the fight] was my neck and my head were hurting the week of the fight and I couldn’t figure out why like it was like the biggest headache and the worst neck pin I’ve ever had and I had that same neck and head pain on Sunday after the fight,” Barber explained.
“This was honestly one of the toughest camps and I think it all compiled and my body at the end, was just like, ‘We’re done,'” she added.
Barber appears to be in good spirits at the moment. Another positive thing is the fact that she has now gone unbeaten in her last six trips to the Octagon.
Watch Barber’s full interview below:
