Preview: UFC 276 Prelims

Women’s Flyweights

#13 WFLW | Maycee Barber (10-2, 5-2 UFC) vs. #10 WFLW | Jessica Eye (15-10, 5-9 UFC)

ODDS: Barber (-240), Eye (+200)

Things have gone sideways at times, but Barber remains an interesting prospect. She earned a UFC contract at just 20 years old, carrying herself with the confidence that she would become the youngest champion in UFC history. That confidence served her well. Barber is far from the most technically sound prospect, but she is a horse of an athlete. Through her willingness to try and run through her opponents, she was able to dispatch some strong competition to kick off her UFC career. However, 2020 saw things go south for “The Future,” starting with her bout against Roxanne Modafferi. Despite her younger counterpart’s considerable physical advantages, Modafferi got the edge in their wrestling and grappling exchanges, winning the fight handily even before Barber tore her ACL. Upon her return, Barber’s performances have been a mixed bag, though, as always, her athleticism has covered up some of her flaws. Her first fight back opposite Alexa Grasso saw Barber attempt to fight a more patient and technical style that got her nowhere. However, Barber did find some late success throwing that out the window and returning to her aggressive style. Her next bout against Miranda Maverick saw Barber fight another range-heavy performance, this time earning a controversial decision win. As such, it was nice to see her return to her pressuring ways in April against Montana De La Rosa, even though De La Rosa did hold her own in a lot of the clinch and wrestling exchanges. Overall, Barber is in a tough transition phase that, due to her physicality, might wind up fine for her even as she attempts to figure things out. She gets an interesting fight here against Eye.

Eye is a better fighter than her record and her reputation would suggest, but she is going through her second particularly rough stretch of her UFC career at the moment. Eye is a decently well-rounded fighter, but her lack of finishing ability and some occasional poor decision making has held her back, particularly during her days at 135 pounds. Eye ended her bantamweight campaign with five losses in six fights, although some were decisions that easily could have gone her way. Once the UFC opened up its women’s flyweight division, Eye immediately found success in her natural weight class. Her additional physicality turned those narrow decision losses into wins, and it took her less than a year to become the division’s top contender. Of course, that just set Eye up to be annihilated by Valentina Shevchenko via highlight-reel head kick, and she has struggled to recapture her momentum since. In Eye’s last two fights, 2021 losses to Joanne Wood and Jennifer Maia, she seems to have doubled down on attempting to bully opponents with pressure and has not found much success for her troubles. That would be a poor idea against Barber, but Eye also does not seem to be the type of fighter who learns from her failures. Eye is still the better boxer of the two and could find some success—there appears to be a clear intersection of physicality and skill that Barber struggles against, and Eye may just hit those benchmarks—but it is hard to trust either of them to stick to a gameplan that maximizes their effectiveness. In that fight, just take the better athlete. The pick is Barber via decision.

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Barber vs. Eye
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