Mackenzie Dern isn’t wasting any time returning to the Octagon. The hyped 6-0 strawweight prospect just made her UFC debut with a hard-fought split decision win over Ashley Yoder at March 3’s UFC 222, and after calling for a fight at UFC 224 in the momenta afterward, she’s headed back to the origins of her championship-winning […]
Mackenzie Dern isn’t wasting any time returning to the Octagon.
The hyped 6-0 strawweight prospect just made her UFC debut with a hard-fought split decision win over Ashley Yoder at March 3’s UFC 222, and after calling for a fight at UFC 224 in the momenta afterward, she’s headed back to the origins of her championship-winning Brazilian jiu-jitsu pedigree.
News broke from MMA Brasil Wednesday that Dern will make a fast turnaround to face former The Ultimate Fighter (TUF) 20 finalist Amanda Bobby Cooper at May 24’s UFC 224 from Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.
Dern, the daughter of BJJ great Wellington “Megaton” Dias, is widely regarded as one of the finest female submission artists in the world, owning a win over feared champion Gabi Garcia. She’s submitted her foe in three of her six total mixed martial arts bouts, and the 24-year-old Brazilian-American would appear to have a match-up tailor-made for her skillset in Cooper, who has lost all three of her defeats by submission.
But the 3-3 Cooper did make it to the TUF 20 finals, and also picked up a one-sided TKO win over Angela Magana in her last bout to regain some much-needed momentum after tapping out to a Cynthia Calvillo rear-naked choke in her prior fight at UFC 209 in 2016.
Dern did show some wild inexperience on the feet against Yoder. She was prone to wild, lunging punches that left her chin incredibly open, and indeed Yoder dropped her with a big punch at one point. Yet there’s little doubt Cooper will be in imminent danger if the fight hits the mat.
‘ABC’ doesn’t seem to be phased by that fact, however, posting that she’s been training for a long while to beat Dern and would derail her hype train:
The UFC held their third pay-per-view (PPV) event of the year with last weekend’s (Sat., March 3, 2018) UFC 222 from the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas, Nevada, and several pivotal rankings changes resulted. The most notable shift undoubtedly went to surging featherweight contender Brian Ortega, who overtook the No. 1 spot at 145 pounds for […]
The UFC held their third pay-per-view (PPV) event of the year with last weekend’s (Sat., March 3, 2018) UFC 222 from the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas, Nevada, and several pivotal rankings changes resulted.
The most notable shift undoubtedly went to surging featherweight contender Brian Ortega, who overtook the No. 1 spot at 145 pounds for his scintillating knockout of UFC great Frankie Edgar.
Previously ranked at No. 3 following his submission of Cub Swanson, Ortega pushed longtime former champion Jose Aldo out of the top spot, dropping him to No. 2 and Edgar to No. 3. The previously No. 3-ranked ‘T-City’ filled in for injured champion Max Holloway against Edgar at UFC 222, and will now move on to a title bout with “Blessed” according to UFC president Dana White.
In other rankings movement, former heavyweight champion Andrei Arlovski rose two spots after a surprisingly wrestling-focused win over Stefan Struve on the main card. Struve fell two spots to No. 12. Debuting lightweight Alexander Hernandez stormed on to the Top 15 with his explosive first-round knockout over previous No. 12 Beneil Dariush, debuting at No. 13 while allowing Anthony Pettis to rise to 12 and dropping Dariush to 15.
John Dodson rose up a spot to No. 7 at bantamweight after a close win over Pedro Munhoz, and Bryan Caraway dropped two spots to No. 9 after a split decision loss to Cody Stamann, who debuted on the 135-pound rankings at No. 12. Finally, at women’s bantamweight, rising contender Ketlen Vieira moved up a spot to No. 4 after her decision win over No. 6 Cat Zingano while writers continue to rank Ronda Rousey, even though she fell two spots, despite her clearly being a WWE-employed pro wrestler.
POUND-FOR-POUND 1 Demetrious Johnson 2 Conor McGregor 3 Daniel Cormier 4 Stipe Miocic 5 Max Holloway 6 Georges St-Pierre 7 TJ Dillashaw 8 Tyron Woodley 9 Cris Cyborg 10 Tony Ferguson 11 Robert Whittaker 12 Khabib Nurmagomedov +2 12 Cody Garbrandt 14 Amanda Nunes -1 15 Joanna Jedrzejczyk
FLYWEIGHT Champion : Demetrious Johnson 1 Joseph Benavidez 2 Henry Cejudo 3 Ray Borg 4 Jussier Formiga 5 Sergio Pettis 6 Wilson Reis 7 Brandon Moreno 8 Ben Nguyen 9 Dustin Ortiz 10 John Moraga 11 Matheus Nicolau 12 Tim Elliott 13 Alexandre Pantoja 14 Deiveson Figueiredo 15 Magomed Bibulatov
BANTAMWEIGHT Champion : TJ Dillashaw 1 Cody Garbrandt 2 Dominick Cruz 3 Raphael Assuncao 4 Jimmie Rivera 5 Marlon Moraes 6 John Lineker 7 John Dodson +1 8 Aljamain Sterling +1 9 Bryan Caraway -2 10 Pedro Munhoz 11 Rob Font 12 Cody Stamann *NR 13 Thomas Almeida -1 14 Brett Johns -1 15 Eddie Wineland -1
FEATHERWEIGHT Champion : Max Holloway 1 Brian Ortega +2 2 Jose Aldo -1 3 Frankie Edgar -1 4 Cub Swanson 5 Jeremy Stephens 6 Josh Emmett 7 Ricardo Lamas 8 Chan Sung Jung 9 Darren Elkins 10 Yair Rodriguez 11 Renato Moicano 12 Mirsad Bektic 13 Calvin Kattar +1 14 Dooho Choi -1 15 Myles Jury
LIGHTWEIGHT Champion : Conor McGregor 1 Tony Ferguson (Interim Champion) 2 Khabib Nurmagomedov 3 Eddie Alvarez 4 Edson Barboza 5 Dustin Poirier 6 Justin Gaethje 7 Kevin Lee 8 Nate Diaz 9 Michael Chiesa 10 Al Iaquinta 11 James Vick 12 Anthony Pettis +1 13 Alexander Hernandez *NR 14 Evan Dunham 15 Beneil Dariush -3
WELTERWEIGHT Champion : Tyron Woodley 1 Stephen Thompson 2 Rafael Dos Anjos 3 Colby Covington 4 Robbie Lawler 5 Demian Maia 6 Jorge Masvidal 7 Darren Till 8 Kamaru Usman 9 Neil Magny 10 Santiago Ponzinibbio 11 Donald Cerrone 12 Carlos Condit 13 Gunnar Nelson 14 Dong Hyun Kim 15 Leon Edwards
MIDDLEWEIGHT Champion : Robert Whittaker 1 Yoel Romero 2 Jacare Souza 3 Luke Rockhold 4 Chris Weidman 5 Kelvin Gastelum 6 Michael Bisping 7 Derek Brunson 8 David Branch 9 Uriah Hall 10 Vitor Belfort 11 Thiago Santos 12 Lyoto Machida 13 Krzysztof Jotko 14 Paulo Costa 15 Brad Tavares
LIGHT HEAVYWEIGHT Champion : Daniel Cormier 1 Alexander Gustafsson 2 Volkan Oezdemir 3 Glover Teixeira 4 Jimi Manuwa 5 Ilir Latifi 6 Ovince Saint Preux 7 Mauricio Rua 8 Misha Cirkunov 9 Corey Anderson 10 Patrick Cummins 11 Jan Blachowicz 12 Tyson Pedro 13 Gadzhimurad Antigulov 14 Gian Villante 15 Jordan Johnson *NR
HEAVYWEIGHT Champion : Stipe Miocic 1 Francis Ngannou 2 Alistair Overeem 3 Fabricio Werdum 4 Cain Velasquez 5 Curtis Blaydes 6 Derrick Lewis 6 Mark Hunt 8 Alexander Volkov 9 Marcin Tybura 10 Andrei Arlovski +2 11 Aleksei Oleinik 12 Stefan Struve -2 13 Junior Albini -1 14 Tai Tuivasa -1 15 Shamil Abdurakhimov *NR
Last night’s (Sat., March 3, 2018) UFC 222 from the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas, Nevada, was the first time controversial combat sports judge Adelaide Byrd had judged since her laughable score at last September’s Gennady Golovkin vs. Canelo Alvarez boxing match, so it was hardly a surprise that the event featured some questionable split decisions in fights […]
Last night’s (Sat., March 3, 2018) UFC 222 from the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas, Nevada, was the first time controversial combat sports judge Adelaide Byrd had judged since her laughable score at last September’s Gennady Golovkin vs. Canelo Alvarez boxing match, so it was hardly a surprise that the event featured some questionable split decisions in fights she was judging.
Three bouts she judged in total ended in split decisions, including a questionable 29-28 nod for women’s strawweight Ashley Yoder over Mackenzie Dern, and a 29-28 nod to Cody Stamann in his bantamweight match with Bryan Caraway, a score that was echoed by judge Sal D’Amato to give Stamann a win most media outlets had scored for Caraway.
The fact Byrd presided over the card was announced by Octagon commentator Jon Anik at the beginning of the Stamann vs. Caraway bout (where Anik said Canelo vs. Golvkin was in August 2016, for some reason), and it led to a hilarious exchange between Joe Rogan, Daniel Cormier, and Anik where they made fun of Byrd’s questionable past based on the Canelo vs. GGG decision. Check it out as transcribed by MMA Mania:
Anik: I can tell you boys, that one of the three judges for this fight is one Adalaide Byrd. First time judging since that controversial August 2016 decision in GGG vs. ‘Canelo’ Alvarez, so don’t shoot the messenger.
Rogan: We just both had a heart attack. Oh God, she was driving a Ferrari for that fight.
Daniel Cormier: (laughs) Oh my goodness.
Rogan: She’s a nice lady though.
Cormier: She’s a great lady. The other day I saw her at The Ultimate Fighter… (laughs) She’s a very nice lady, let’s just leave it at that.
Rogan: She’s a very nice person. So is my mom, but I wouldn’t want her judging any fights.
Cormier: (Laughs) Oh my goodness, somebody get Joe Rogan! (Laughs) Somebody get Joe Rogan!
Rogan: My mom would be like, “Oh Canelo is handsome! I’ll give him the round.”
(They all laugh)
Then the conversation continued on later in the bout when ‘DC’ hinted that leaving this particular bout in the hands of the judges may not be a good idea:
Cormier: Leaving an impression in the judges’ minds is especially important. Especially… with…
(They all laugh)
Rogan: Don’t say it! Don’t say it! (laughs) We’ve given that lady enough problems.
Rogan caught himself in the second exchange, but the cat was out of the bag after he suggested Byrd was ‘driving a Ferrari’ for her score in the Canelo-Golovkin bout, a statement implying some nefarious connections to her heavily criticized scorecard.
She’s still back judging high-level fights, however, and based on last night’s results, no fighter who lets a contest go to the scorecards is safe.
This evening’s (Sat., March 3, 2018) UFC 222 from the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas, Nevada, delivered in every sense of the term, with three hyped potential future stars picking up victories capped off by a classic win from an all-time great champion. In the main event, women’s featherweight champ Cris Cyborg stopped Yana Kunitskaya after […]
This evening’s (Sat., March 3, 2018) UFC 222 from the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas, Nevada, delivered in every sense of the term, with three hyped potential future stars picking up victories capped off by a classic win from an all-time great champion.
In a few hours, tonight’s (Sat., March 3, 2018) UFC 222 will begin from the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas, Nevada. It’s not the most star-studded card by any means, and it even lost its main event when featherweight champ Max Holloway was forced out of his anticipated showdown with Frankie Edgar, a bout that was […]
In a few hours, tonight’s (Sat., March 3, 2018) UFC 222 will begin from the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas, Nevada.
It’s not the most star-studded card by any means, and it even lost its main event when featherweight champ Max Holloway was forced out of his anticipated showdown with Frankie Edgar, a bout that was replaced by an impromptu women’s featherweight match-up between champ Cris Cyborg and Yana Yunitskaya.
‘The Answer’ stayed on the card as well, taking a huge risk in facing surging contender Brian Ortega in a co-main event where his reward will be the positioning he already had. It’s a great fight, the legend vs. upstart cliché at the highest level and an under-the-radar candidate for the most compelling match-up of 2018 thus far. Unfortunately, however, that almost certainly won’t add up to a high number of pay-per-view buys alone in the currently fickle, MMA-swamped climate.
But UFC 222 isn’t only about time-honored and battle-tested vets like Cyborg and Edgar – far from it, in fact.
The event from top to bottom is a showcase of hyped-up young talent that could represent the future of the UFC in the form of potential stars in Ortega, bantamweight Sean O’Malley, and women’s strawweight Mackenzie Dern.
And the UFC needs new stars.
Following a banner 2016 where Conor McGregor and Ronda Rousey propelled the promotion to an unheard-of string of million-plus pay-per-view buys, the company was sold to Endeavor (formerly WME-IMG) and has since sunk to a concerning valley of low numbers on both pay and cable television.
I won’t delve into the details, some in Endeavor’s control and some out of, of why that has happened – much of the MMA world, including myself, has been guilty of harping too much on the supposed demise of the UFC and MMA as a whole to the point we may not appreciate the crop of insanely amazing, hard-working, and talented fighters we have competing right before our very eyes.
UFC 222 is a showcase of just that, one the likes of which fans rarely get treated to because it’s so difficult to have go off without a hitch.
Photo: Kyle Terada for USA TODAY Sports
Ortega has won five straight bouts after a no contest due to a failed drug test in his first Octagon appearance; the Gracie jiu-jitsu product steadily dispatched an improving caliber of talent by way of submission and T/KO in a manner we rarely find.
True, he’s hittable as we’ve seen in a few of his recent bouts, namely his scintillating submission over top-ranked veteran Cub Swanson in his last fight. He can also snatch a fight-ending hold on the best literally out of thin air, as we saw in his scintillating submission over Swanson. Ortega is fully deserving of his Top 3 ranking.
He’s also a man with a focus on philanthropy after having risen above a potential life of gangs, so the California-based Ortega is a refreshing, unique personality who could become a champion unlike we’ve ever seen.
Stephen R. Sylvanie for USA TODAY Sports
O’Malley, a lithe bantamweight who first made his debut with a first-round knockout on ‘Dana White’s Tuesday Night Contender Series,’ is a much different kind of prospect.
The brash young knockout artist then won his official debut by unanimous decision over Terrion Ware at The Ultimate Fighter (TUF) 26 Finale in December.
He’ll now face Andre Soukhamthath in his second UFC match-up, and he has future star written all over him. He’s confident, even cocky, and his accurate striking style makes ‘Suga’ just the kind of fighter fans will pay to see compete.
Dern needs nary an introduction.
The daughter of Brazilian jiu-jitsu legend Wellington “Megaton” Dias, Dern is one of few grapplers to defeat Gabi Garcia in the gi, and has transitioned well into MMA so far with an undefeated 5-0 record. She’ll now fight in the big leagues when she meets Ashley Yoder in the featured preliminary bout at UFC 222.
That could start tonight, and the entirety of MMA will be watching to see if the Dern hype train will truly kick into high gear in 2018.
All of it adds up to UFC 222 being a rare, exciting card where the potential future stars of MMA are competing, even if it doesn’t break the bank in terms of PPV buys. These three competitors have so much talent and charisma that it could be said Ortega, O’Malley, and Dern will still become future stars in the UFC no matter if they win or lose at UFC 222.
After such a down period, the sport needs them and fighters just like them, and that’s why this card is so special.
Take a break from the oft-discussed downfall of MMA, look at the card, sit back, and enjoy a night that could possibly be referenced as the starting point of something special.
The stage is nearly set for tomorrow’s (Sat., March 3, 2018) UFC 222 from the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas, Nevada. Fighters participating in the pay-per-view event weighed in an today’s official early weigh-ins, and each fighter made weight without instance for this card. The event features a late-notice women’s featherweight title fight between Cris Cyborg […]
The stage is nearly set for tomorrow’s (Sat., March 3, 2018) UFC 222 from the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas, Nevada.
Fighters participating in the pay-per-view event weighed in an today’s official early weigh-ins, and each fighter made weight without instance for this card.
The event features a late-notice women’s featherweight title fight between Cris Cyborg and Invicta FC bantamweight champion Yana Kunitskaya, and the event also has the potential to be a huge leaping point for future stars like Brian Ortega, who will meet stalwart contender Frankie Edgar in the co-main event, Mackenzie Dern, who will face Ashley Yoder in her UFC debut, and exciting bantamweight Sean O’Malley.
All that’s left before they square off in Sin City tomorrow night is to step on the scales and face off, so watch the UFC 222 ceremonial weigh-in video streaming live at 7 p.m. EST/4 p.m. PST right here:
