When the UFC rolls a highlight package previewing a fight on its telecasts, the reel ends just as a fighter’s walk-out music starts.

But when the highlights for Saturday’s Erin Blanchfield vs. Maycee Barber UFC Vegas 107 headliner concluded, the ESPN audience was met with an awkward silence. Barber’s walk-out music had been abruptly halted merely moments before the highlight package ended.

As the cameras shifted to the broadcast team of Brendan Fitzgerald, Laura Sanko and Daniel Cormier, Fitzgerald said, “Just receiving word right now while that feature was playing that Maycee Barber is not prepared to walk for her main event right now. Still trying to figure it out. We don’t know any details.”

After Sanko pointed out how “there have been issues” for Barber since she extended her winning streak to six fights with a unanimous-decision win over Katlyn Cerminara at UFC 299 on March 9 of 2024, ESPN went to a commercial break.

Upon returning, Fitzgerald informed the audience that “the main event has been cancelled. Maycee Barber and Erin Blanchfield – they will not fight tonight. There was a last-minute medical issue for Maycee Barber. She’s not cleared medically to compete.”

Like Sanko noted, Barber has been going through it. After her win over Cerminara, she had a near-death experience when a combination of strep throat, pneumonia and a staph infection led to a nine-day stay in the hospital.

A few months later after being scheduled to face Rose Namajunas in the UFC Denver main event on July 13, Barber was forced to pull out due to ongoing health issues.

Let’s track back to 2021 when Blanchfield and Barber were initially booked to face each other at UFC 269, but Barber pulled out of that contest several weeks beforehand. On that note, Blanchfield expressed concerns early last week about whether Barber, the women’s flyweight division’s #5 contender, would show up this time around.

“Maycee is someone that has pulled out of fights pretty frequently,” Blanchfield told MMA Fighting. “She has a history of that. There’s always a worry but that could happen with anyone at the same time.

“A lot of the other top flyweights were already booked because they were booked [for UFC 315]. I think it just made sense and so far, she’s still in the fight so hopefully it stays that way.”

On Friday, Barber missed weight when she tipped the scales at 126.5 pounds. With the one-pound allowance for non-title fights, that had her only one-half pound over. At the time, the fight remained on with Barber forced to forfeit 20 percent of her purse to Blanchfield.

As it turned out, Blanchfield was paid both her win bonus and her salary to show.

In the aftermath of the last-second cancellation, Blanchfield blasted Barber.

“She needs to look at another division,” Blanchfield said about Barber. “She needs to fix her life. She needs to just fix herself. I think she’s a complete mess in every aspect of her entire life.

“I’ve never even had any other opponents miss weight before or act the way she does. It’s pretty crazy, especially at this level. You expect all the athletes to be professional so it’s pretty wild.”

Barber commented on her withdrawal early Sunday night for the first time with a post to her Instagram account.

Barber said, “Not what I had planned for a Sunday post. Thank you to everyone for the prayers & support I owe an apology to [the UFC, Mick Maynard, Dana White, Sean Shelby & Erin Blanchfield.] **PS my life is not messy this is just a bad hand. We will get to the bottom of it all and be back.”

The post had four pictures attached to it. In the second photo, Barber is seen on a stretcher being wheeled into the hospital. In the fourth, she’s seen in a hospital bed with a blanket over her.

Women’s flyweight champion Valentina Shevchenko was in attendance at the UFC Apex on Saturday, as the winner of Barber vs. the fourth-ranked Blanchfield might’ve been in line for the next title shot with an impressive performance.

Blanchfield has ruled out any possibility of accepting a booking with Barber again. “[Barber’s] not on my level,” she said.

The Octagon will be in Newark this weekend for the UFC 316 show that’ll be headlined by a pair of title fights. In a rematch, bantamweight champion Merab Dvalishvili will make his second title defense against former 135-pound kingpin Sean O’Malley.

In the co-main event, women’s bantamweight queen Julianna Pena will take on Kayla Harrison. As of Monday afternoon, Harrison was installed as an enormous favorite in the -600 (Caesars) to -715 (BetRivers) range, leaving Pena as a +500 underdog at BetRivers.

Dvalishvili was a -305 ‘chalk’ at DraftKings, with O’Malley listed as a +245 ‘dog.