Her return fight wouldn’t go as planned, as she dropped a decision to rising flyweight Alexa Grasso. Even though she lost the bout, there was an important moment in that fight for Barber. Down two rounds to nil, she entered the third round with a different mentality and put Grasso on the ropes for the full five minutes.
That third round made her realize that even though she was confident – she didn’t truly feel confident. That was what she was missing, and she had to do everything she could to find that before the next time she was set to scrap.
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“My last few fights I was trying to put on that ‘I’m confident, I’m ready face’,” Barber told UFC.com. “And in my mind, I was scrambled all over the place and I was dealing with a lot.”
That’s when Barber made the switch to go out to Sacramento, CA, and train at Team Alpha Male. Under the guidance of Urijah Faber and his stable of coaches, she was able to make some key mental switches that completely changed the way she feels about competing.
“Every day that I walk in the door of the gym it’s a conversation on how we can get better and not dwelling on the past. It’s a really big ship; it’s not easy to just turn a ship around. It’s a process,” Barber said. “I’ve been taught lessons on losses. I’ve been taught lessons on injuries. I’ve had so many lessons and there are so many more to be learned.”
