Tag: Mackenzie Dern

Mackenzie Dern Claims Second UFC Match-Up Is Easier Than Her First

Mackenzie Dern may only be one fight into her UFC career, but the submission specialist is already on a crash course to becoming a star in the sport. Dern faces Amanda Bobby Cooper in her native Brazil at UFC 224, and is now experiencing trash talk for the first time in her MMA career. Cooper […]

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Mackenzie Dern may only be one fight into her UFC career, but the submission specialist is already on a crash course to becoming a star in the sport.

Dern faces Amanda Bobby Cooper in her native Brazil at UFC 224, and is now experiencing trash talk for the first time in her MMA career.

Cooper has belittled Dern’s stand-up and wrestling in the lead-up to their fight, and Dern’s more amused than angry. The Brazilian jiu-jitsu ace she clapped back in her own kind of way, comparing Cooper to Dern’s last opponent, Ashley Yoder (via MMA Fighting):

“She doesn’t think I’m good at all, basically. It’s OK. I think that Ashley was a harder opponent than her. Ashley is like southpaw, tall. Most of Ashley’s losses by decision, never lost by submission. All of Amanda’s losses are by submission. So, I think the fight with Amanda is gonna be a good matchup with me. I think it’s gonna be way easier than against Ashley, who is taller and everything.”

“I think most people are gonna be surprised by the punches. I know they think like I click the automatic and you just go a little crazy. For sure, I’m a jiu-jitsu girl, but I’m not scared to punch. For sure, this fight I want to submit — like fast. The last fight with Ashley, I wanted to like stay standing up. I wanted to get the submission, but I didn’t have a rush to finish fast. But for Amanda, I want to submit fast. I’ll be in Brazil, I’m a Brazilian jiu-jitsu fighter, I want to like show jiu-jitsu. So, I’m going to finish as fast as possible this fight.”

Dern (6-0) admits she’s new to the trash talking aspect of the fight game, as her prior opponents never really did so prior to Cooper (3-3). But being a Brazilian fighting on a card in Brazil, Dern seems assured she will be the crowd favorite:

“It’s the first person I’m fighting that’s kind of talking about me, so I’m surprised. If it was in Vegas, I think it would be different. But man, she’s fighting in Brazil and she’s like talking a lot. I think it’s gonna be worse for her. … You know the ‘uhh vai morrer,’ they’re gonna say it no matter what, but the more she talks, the worst.”

“It’s OK that she thinks that, but she’s been submitted. So I think her ground needs to get better first before she says [something] about my ground.”

Dern and Cooper will meet on May 12 in Rio De Janeiro at UFC 224.

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Mackenzie Dern Responds to Amanda Cooper’s Criticisms of Her Skills

Mackenzie Dern isn’t much for trash talk but she’ll certainly respond when an opponent has something to say about her. In the lead up to her fight at UFC 224 next weekend, Dern has heard Amanda Cooper’s criticisms of her after she mad…

Mackenzie Dern isn’t much for trash talk but she’ll certainly respond when an opponent has something to say about her. In the lead up to her fight at UFC 224 next weekend, Dern has heard Amanda Cooper’s criticisms of her after she made her debut against Ashley Yoder in March. Cooper said that Dern had […]

The post Mackenzie Dern Responds to Amanda Cooper’s Criticisms of Her Skills appeared first on MMA News.

Mackenzie Dern Reveals Camp Change Heading Into UFC 224

Headed into her second UFC bout, rising women’s MMA star Mackenzie Dern has announced she has changed teams. The UFC women’s 115-pound prospect revealed at a media day luncheon via MMAFighting.com that she had been asked to leave The MMA Lab in her home state of Arizona following her UFC debut win over Ashley Yoder […]

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Headed into her second UFC bout, rising women’s MMA star Mackenzie Dern has announced she has changed teams.

The UFC women’s 115-pound prospect revealed at a media day luncheon via MMAFighting.com that she had been asked to leave The MMA Lab in her home state of Arizona following her UFC debut win over Ashley Yoder at March’s UFC 222.

According to Dern, it was her consistency (or lack thereof) that made team head coach John Crouch ask her to move:

“In relation with the Lab, after my last fight, Coach [John] Crouch, he just invited me to leave the team,” Dern said. “I think really we don’t have a 100-percent understanding. I think he knows his decisions more than me. I think with just the consistency, he wanted me to be there more often than what I was, but everything happens for a reason.”

Hyped as one of the best rising talents in the UFC, Brazilian jiu-jitsu champion Dern revealed she was getting ready for her fight versus Amanda Bobby Cooper at May’s UFC 224 at Blackhouse in L.A., where she refines her much-needed striking game, and with Checkmat and Leo Vieira for jiu-jitsu, the overtly dominant aspect of her game.

Dern stated that although it wasn’t a permanent fit for now, she was enjoying her time training in California right now:

“It’s nothing 100 percent or anything like that, but for this camp I’ve been working with them and I’m feeling so good,”

Crouch also addressed the scenario in his own statement, fixating on Dern’s aforementioned inconsistency with training while offering his belief she’d be better off centering her camp in California. Overall, he wished her the best in her fight career:

“She was struggling to make it back and forth to Arizona, and I thought it was better that she just set up her camp in California, where she really enjoys being. I wish her the best. I know she’s going to do great in her jiu-jitsu career and in her MMA career, and we’ll be cheering for her.”

Dern then addressed that herself, offering her mindset in California and why it works for her in a similar fashion as Brazil, where heritage stems from. She may have been born in Arizona and begun her career at The MMA Lab, but wasn’t willing to give up her life outside of fighting to be in the gym every day without fail:

“I think, like I said, the mindset and being confident, if you’re happy, too, with where you are, it’s the best,” Dern said. “Here is a little bit similar lifestyle that I have in Brazil. I almost went back to Brazil to live there. I was even training with Jose Aldo down there and everything and seeing if I would be there. So, I have this lifestyle here in California, which gives me that good balance.

“I’m not just training,” Dern said. “I’m not the person that the next day I’m back in the academy. I like to be able to be on the beach and relax and miss to be on the mats and want to be on the mats. I don’t like to feel the pressure to be on the mats. I’m on the mats since I’m 3 years old. For me, at 25, when I have the time to rest and everything, then the next time, it’s like man I want to train. I like to have that drive.”

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Sean O’Malley Reveals Exclusive Reebok Shirt To Debut On 4/20

Surging UFC bantamweight Sean O’Malley avoided any potential trouble for pretending to light a joint on live TV last weekend, and now he’s headed for a lucrative sponsorship deal. The touted 135-pound striker recently revealed on this week’s episode of The MMA Hour that he was the latest fighter to sign an exclusive deal with the […]

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Surging UFC bantamweight Sean O’Malley avoided any potential trouble for pretending to light a joint on live TV last weekend, and now he’s headed for a lucrative sponsorship deal.

The touted 135-pound striker recently revealed on this week’s episode of The MMA Hour that he was the latest fighter to sign an exclusive deal with the UFC’s apparel partner Reebok, and that the shirt will go on sale on a date that almost definitely coincides with his latest public appearance.

That date, of course, is this Friday, April 20, 2018, and apparently, the shirts are already selling like hotcakes:

“Actually, my manager hooked it up. I am going to sign a two-year deal with Reebok, so I am excited about that. These shirts will go on sale on 4/20 at UFC.com and MMAWarehouse.com.Reebok didn’t make enough shirts to stock their one Reebok.com store.”

This would only seem to reinforce the fact that the UFC is tabbing O’Malley as one of the biggest future stars after he debuted on Dana White’s “Tuesday Night Contender Series” last summer, following it up with a decision win over Terrion Ware in his official promotional debut at The Ultimate Fighter (TUF) 26 Finale last December and a second UFC win over Andre Soukhamthath at March’s UFC 223, a bout where “Sugar” injured his foot and required surgery on afterward.

He said it wasn’t anything his “medicine” couldn’t take care of during his now-classic post-fight interview with Joe Rogan, however, and it’s become plain to see that a big part of O’Malley’s drawing power is going to be centered around the ganja.

Based on Nate Diaz’ ability to make cash outside of the octagon using the booming business of legalized medicinal and recreational marijuana, it’s not a bad plan for success.

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Sean O’Malley Describes UFC’s Reaction To Joint-Smoking Joke On Live TV

Surging bantamweight prospect Sean O’Malley has made headlines for his flashy in-cage style in his two UFC wins over Andre Soukhamthath and Terrion Ware. But ‘Sugar’ has begun branching out his overall scope of appearance by promoting himself in his own unique way, and he continued that during the live TV broadcast for last Saturday’s […]

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Surging bantamweight prospect Sean O’Malley has made headlines for his flashy in-cage style in his two UFC wins over Andre Soukhamthath and Terrion Ware.

But ‘Sugar’ has begun branching out his overall scope of appearance by promoting himself in his own unique way, and he continued that during the live TV broadcast for last Saturday’s UFC on FOX 29 from Glendale, Arizona.

O’Malley channeled his inner Nate Diaz and pretended to light a joint on live television, lighting the Twitterverse on fire and furthering his already-growing (and weed-focused) persona. While you might have thought O’Malley would get into at least some trouble for pretending to smoke weed on television, apparently, that wasn’t the case.

The rising star revealed on this week’s episode of The MMA Hour that his bosses at the UFC weren’t too angry with him for his on-camera stunt:

“Where they sat us was right in the UFC section, so I figured they would [put me on camera],

“Eventually they come up to us and said, ‘Hey, we’re going to shoot you guys here in a little bit, we’ll let you know’. I was like, ‘this is perfect timing.’

“I kept smiling at [UFC official] Heidi [Dean] who had just told us that we’re going to get on camera because I knew that she wasn’t going to be happy with me, but she wasn’t too mad. She was the one who said, ‘Okay, you guys are going to be on camera in 3,2,1,’ and I kept smiling at her but she didn’t know why, but I think she did then.”

‘Sugar’ was also sitting next to a fellow rising star in touted women’s strawweight contender Mackenzie Dern, his teammate at the MMA Lab in Arizona. The Brazilian jiu-jitsu phenom appeared surprised when O’Malley pretended to light his spliff, but O’Malley insisted he told her his plan and she had approved:

“I told her before; I warned her. Well, I told her right before and she said, ‘Okay’. Mackenzie is cool. She’s been training at The MMA Lab for three years, so I’ve known her for a while.”

O’Malley injured his foot in his win over Soukhamthath at March’s UFC 223, and had fans talking when he said he would heal up with the aid of some ‘medicine’ in his now-infamous post-fight interview with Joe Rogan.

We now know what medicine he’s referring to, and based on the increased legality of medicinal marijuana and his online personality flaunting its use, O’Malley is quickly -and cunningly – gaining a large number of fans by promoting that side of his persona.

Will he become the next Nate Diaz in MMA?

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Video: Sean O’Malley Pretends To Light Joint On Live TV

Rising UFC bantamweight prospect Sean O’Malley has won all of his UFC matches so far, but the polarizing “Sugar” is beginning to make headlines for his colorful personality as well. That was just the case at tonight’s (Sat., April 14, 2018) UFC on FOX 29 from the Gila River Arena in Glendale, Arizona, where O’Malley was […]

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Rising UFC bantamweight prospect Sean O’Malley has won all of his UFC matches so far, but the polarizing “Sugar” is beginning to make headlines for his colorful personality as well.

That was just the case at tonight’s (Sat., April 14, 2018) UFC on FOX 29 from the Gila River Arena in Glendale, Arizona, where O’Malley was in the crowd with a fellow rising prospect, women’s strawweight Mackenzie Dern.

When the camera shifted to him and Dern during the event, O’Malley imitated a fellow polarizing fan favorite in Nate Diaz by pretending to light up a joint on national television, much to the delight of the crowd and Dern.

Check out the hilarious scene right here:

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