Photo by Buda Mendes/Zuffa LLC/Zuffa LLC via Getty Images
Mackenzie Dern will make her much-anticipated return to action this Saturday night (Oct. 12, 2019) when she faces Amanda Ribas at UFC Fight Night 161 inside Amalie Arena in Tampa, Florida. The fight will be Dern’s first since defeating Amanda Cooper at UFC 224 in May 2018. But what makes her return impressive is that she gave birth just four months ago to her first child.
Making a quick return was always on the submission specialist’s list of goals, but getting UFC on board was a battle in and of itself.
“I definitely wanted to get back this year,” Dern explained during a recent interview on Ariel Helwani’s MMA Show. “I wanted to get back to training sooner. I thought that I could get back to training the week after giving birth, but it wasn’t that easy.
“I had to go slow for one month,” she added, while breaking down everything she had to go through in order to convince UFC to let her back into the cage so soon. “I was back to to doing jiu-jitsu in six weeks, four weeks four Muay Thai. But, the hardest part, honestly, was to get UFC to let me fight. They were like, ‘No, it’s too soon, you can get injured. The weight cut.’ But I told them I could do it and I am happy that they let me do it and I am excited to be back.”
According to Dern, getting the final approval didn’t come easy, as she had to head over to the UFC Performance Institute in Las Vegas, Nevada for several tests.
“They wanted to see my weight, and afterward they were really surprised with my weight,” she said. “And they wanted to see how much carbohydrates my body was burning while resting or if it was fat. Those types of tests. Everything was good and they were surprised.
“Then they started to say, ‘Well, you are breastfeeding, what is that going to change?” she added. “Is your daughter going to get all of the nutrients because you are dieting?”
Once she passed those, there were several phone conferences with her doctors and UFC officials before she was ultimately given the green light.
“So they were concerned about everything and I had to get all of my doctors in California to talk to them on the phone. It was kind of a big thing to let me go. But finally they didn’t have anymore excuses to let me fight after doctors said I was good to go.”
In fact, Dern — who has missed weight in the past — credits breastfeeding for aiding in the rapid weight loss, and says she will have no issues hitting her mark once weigh-in day rolls around.
But just because it’s fight week, doesn’t mean that her mom duties will come to a halt, as her baby girl, Moa, will be with her come fight week, proving that a mother’s work is truly never done. That said, Dern will have a full team — including her husband and her father — along for the ride to assist her with anything she needs.
As for the fight itself, Dern will look to extend her undefeated streak to 8-0 against the 7-1 Ribas, who made her successful Octagon debut this past June against Emily Whitmire.