"How bad my lungs are from being that sick" - Maycee Barber updates on her recovery progress post-hospitalization after UFC 299

While Maycee Barber's 2024 campaign started on a high note with a unanimous decision win over Katlyn Cerminara at UFC 299, illness fell upon the fighter as she came down with a mystery infection that kept her hospitalized for nine days.

Now, in a post on her Instagram Story, the 25-year-old has given an update on her recovery.

Responding to a fan query on how her recovery was going, Barber wrote:

"It's coming along. I'm still on antibiotics for another week or two, and then, hopefully, I'll be off them, and everything will be cleared up. Realized today how bad my lungs are after being that sick. Tried play fighting/joking around and was legit sitting on the stairs winded for a solid couple of minutes. Very thankful to be feeling so much better than I was a week ago."

Image courtesy @ [mayceebarber on Instagram]

Barber has her eyes on a rematch against the reigning women's flyweight champion, Alexa Grasso. The Mexican is the only active MMA fighter to have defeated Barber.

However, Grasso is set to coach season 32 of The Ultimate Fighter opposite former flyweight queen Valentina Shevchenko, with a trilogy bout between the pair expected to happen soon after.

'The Future' will have to wait for a while to run it back with the women's pound-for-pound queen, but seeing as Barber is on a six-fight win streak, she'll be one of the favorites to fight the winner of the trilogy.

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Maycee Barber names her second pick for her next fight

Maycee Barber wants Alexa Grasso next. However, with the trilogy bout between Grasso and Valentina Shevchenko looming, she has an alternative in mind in the former of a former champion.

In an exclusive interview with Sportskeeda MMA, 'The Future' picked former strawweight champion Rose Namajunas over the winner of Erin Blanchfield and Manon Fiorot as an alternate pick for her next fight:

"I think for the fans, I think it'd be a better fight for me to fight Rose. I think it would mean more. I don't think fighting Erin or Manon means that much, honestly... To me fighting someone who is a former champion, fighting someone who has been in the division longer, and fighting someone who I truly respect as a fighter and an athlete would be Rose."

Catch Maycee Barber's comments below (19:07):