Tag: Mackenzie Dern

Video – Bobby Green gets hilariously distracted as Mackenzie Dern weighs in ahead of UFC 298

Bobby Green distracted by Mackenzie DernWe were all thinking it, but Bobby Green was the one who said it. On Saturday night, February 17,…

Bobby Green distracted by Mackenzie Dern

We were all thinking it, but Bobby Green was the one who said it.

On Saturday night, February 17, the UFC returns to the Honda Center in Anaheim, California for UFC 298. In the main event of the evening, featherweight king Alexander Volkanovski will put his belt on the line for the sixth time when he meets undefeated challenger Ilia Topuria.

Fans will also be treated to an electrifying co-main event when one-time title challenger Paulo Costa makes his long-awaited comeback against former middleweight world champion Robert Whittaker.

But first, all 24 fighters had to step on the scale during Friday morning’s official weigh-in ceremony. Joining regulars Dan Hellie, Laura Sanko, and Michael Bisping on the broadcast was top-15 ranked lightweight contender Bobby Green, who found himself a bit distracted when strawweight standout Mackenzie Dern made her way to the scale.

“Sheeeeesh,” Green uttered as Dern stepped onto the stage looking… Fit.

Dern will look to bounce back following a lackluster performance against former ex-champ Jéssica Andrade at UFC 295 in November. The Brazilian-American beauty has alternated wins and losses in her last five outings, earning wins over Tecia Torres and Angela Hill while falling to Marina Rodriguez, Yan Xiaonon, and the aforementioned Andrade.

Standing in Mackenzie Dern’s way of a return to the win column is Amanda Lemos. ‘Amandinha’ will be competing for the first time since coming up short in her first UFC title opportunity against reigning strawweight queen Zhang Weili in August.

Mackenzie Dern Details fallout from her divorce ahead of UFC 295: ‘This whole fight is still paying my ex’

Mackenzie DernMackenzie Dern hopes that someday soon, she can look back and see all of the chaos behind her instead…

Mackenzie Dern

Mackenzie Dern hopes that someday soon, she can look back and see all of the chaos behind her instead of constantly surrounding her.

Ahead of her clash with Angela Hill in May, news broke that Dern was in the middle of a tumultuous divorce with her ex-husband that also included a custody battle for their daughter. By the time fight night rolled around, her divorce had been finalized, but as anyone who has gone through the process knows, it rarely ends with the paperwork.

“I realized we always have problems,” Dern said during the UFC 295 media day. “Just the pressure. The last one I went through the divorce. The divorce is final but you don’t realize how much aftermath there is to it. Literally, this whole fight is still paying my ex. It’s crazy, I have to get punched in the face and you work so hard and you do all this and you have to like pay that much of something.

“Money’s something, I’ll fight here, I’ll get it, whatever. Winning or losing, everything’s going to be taken care of. I’ll make more [money] and stuff like that but it’s just problems” (h/t MMA Fighting).

Adding to the chaos ahead of her highly anticipated return to the Octagon on Saturday night was the closing of her gym. To compensate, Dern set up a private training facility in her home and spent some time training with former two-division UFC titleholder Henry Cejudo.

“RVCA closed so I basically made my own home gym,” Dern explained. “You just keep investing in your dream and hope that it works. I’m trying to make everything private at home because you’re just very vulnerable when everyone’s seeing your training. I’m a world champion in jiu-jitsu but people see me in the gym and I’m crying, I’m frustrated because I feel I should be better at something. I feel like I should be able to get it and I don’t get it. It’s not working.

“There’s injuries and there’s a ton of stuff that keeps going on and you’re like I just want to be able to train and get better. I don’t know. In the fight it comes out. It all works out.”

Mackenzie Dern Refuses to use her personal struggles as an excuse

Slowly becoming a master of the chaos, Mackenzie Dern decided to inject a new dynamic into her home.

“I got a new puppy — I think I even invent more problems, more chaos,” Dern said with a laugh. “I thrive on that, the craziness. The puppy and all these things. Getting used to splitting your daughter half of the time with you, half of the time with the dad and all these things. You’re learning so many new dynamics in your routine.

“My whole life when I was training to be a world champion in jiu-jitsu, my best times of being a world champion was when I had a routine and I had a schedule and you’re able to keep focused. I think that’s why it’s hard to be a mom and try to be a world champion, to be the champion in the UFC because you need to be consistent in your training. When you don’t feel you’re consistent in your day-to-day life, one day is this, one day is that, you’re like I just need to train. You just make it work.”

Dern did make it clear that she was by no means creating excuses for herself, recognizing that other fighters deal with these same personal issues all the time. In fact, her UFC 295 opponent, Jessica Andrade, revealed that she was also going through a divorce ahead of Saturday’s showdown.

“It definitely wasn’t easy but I understand that’s what everyone goes through,” Dern said. “Everyone’s having problems. Everyone has injuries, we’re fighters. I think Jessica, she talked about she had a divorce, too. It’s kind of crazy the fans get to watch us let out all of our stress and everything on another person in a fight but that’s what we’re trained for. That’s what makes the victory more special.”

Mackenzie Dern enters her fight with Andrade alternating wins and losses in her last four bouts. Overall she is 8-3 under the UFC banner and on the cusp of a potential strawweight title opportunity. With a big win over ‘Bate Estaca’ in Madison Square Garden, Dern’s next fight could very well be for UFC gold.

Mackenzie Dern books Octagon return against ex-Champion for UFC 295 in November at Madison Square Garden

Mackenzie Dern UFC 295 fight against Jessica Andrade in NovemberBrazilian Jiu-Jitsu ace, Mackenzie Dern has booked her return to the Octagon at UFC 295 later this year, drawing former undisputed strawweight champion, Jessica Andrade in November at Madison Square Garden in New York City. Dern, the current number eight ranked strawweight contender, has been sidelined from active competition since headlining UFC Vegas 73 back […]

Mackenzie Dern UFC 295 fight against Jessica Andrade in November

Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu ace, Mackenzie Dern has booked her return to the Octagon at UFC 295 later this year, drawing former undisputed strawweight champion, Jessica Andrade in November at Madison Square Garden in New York City.

Dern, the current number eight ranked strawweight contender, has been sidelined from active competition since headlining UFC Vegas 73 back in May, landing a decision win over veteran common-foe, Angela Hill in a headlining honors. The outing earned both Dern and Hill post-event Fight of the Night honors.

As for Andrade, the Brazilian former titleholder will make her whopping fifth Octagon walk of the year in her return at UFC 295 in November, attempting to snap a run of three consecutive loss, which was recently bookended by a guillotine choke submission loss to Tatiana Suarez at UFC Fight Night Nashville earlier this month. 

Mackenzie Dern books return against Jessica Andrade

News of Mackenzie Dern’s clash with the returning, Jessica Andrade was first confirmed during the broadcast of UFC 292 over the course of the weekend.

13-3 as a professional, decorated Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu ace and submission grappler, Dern rebounded to the winner’s enclosure in her outing against Hill, having previously dropped a majority decision loss to Yan Xiaonan in a headlining clash.

Over the course of her Octagon tenure, Arizona native, Dern has racked up impressive wins over the likes of Amanda Cooper, Virna Jandiroba, Nina Nunes, as well as Tecia Torres to name a few. 

A former undisputed strawweight champion, Andrade landed divisional spoils with a stunning slam KO win over former two-time titleholder, Rose Namajunas back in 2019 in her native Brazil. 

UFC 295 takes place on November 11. from Madison Square Garden in New York City, with an undisputed heavyweight title fight between champion, Jon Jones, and former division gold holder, Stipe Miocic slated to take headlining honors. 

Who wins between Mackenzie Dern and Jessica Andrade at UFC 295?

Mackenzie Dern shared one complaint Dana White had with her dominant win over Angela Hill

Mackenzie DernMackenzie Dern received some criticism from Dana White following her dominant win over Angela Hill last month. Dern scored by far the most impressive win of her mixed martial arts career thus far, moving to 8-3 in the UFC with a 25-minute shellacking of strawweight mainstay Angela Hill. It was a perfect performance that saw […]

Mackenzie Dern

Mackenzie Dern received some criticism from Dana White following her dominant win over Angela Hill last month.

Dern scored by far the most impressive win of her mixed martial arts career thus far, moving to 8-3 in the UFC with a 25-minute shellacking of strawweight mainstay Angela Hill. It was a perfect performance that saw Dern in complete control for five rounds. Mixing up her striking and world-class grappling, the photogenic BJJ specialist left Las Vegas with her hand raised via a decisive unanimous decision.

However, Dern revealed that Dana White had one very specific gripe regarding Mackenzie Dern’s otherwise spectacular outing.

“I went to talk to him, he told me how he liked the fight, talked to me about the knee,” Dern said during an appearance on the Believe You Me podcast. “He said ‘You could’ve knocked her out if you hit her more’…and I was like, what did I do? My first reaction was to take her to the ground and just grapple, so I still don’t know what that’s like to connect on someone get the knockout” (h/t MMA News).

Mackenzie Dern Earned Her Fifth UFC Performance Bonus

Mackenzie Dern appeared to be on the cusp of a finish multiple times during her Fight Night headliner, at one point landing an absolutely brutal knee in the clinch that nearly put ‘Overkill’ away. To Hill’s credit, she continued to move and fight her way out of every situation that had fight-ending potential. In the end, Dern’s improved striking matched with her impeccable grappling game was too much for Hill to overcome.

The bout was given Fight of the Night honors and earned Mackenzie Dern her fifth $50,000 performance bonus in 11 fights with the promotion.

The win moved Dern into the No. 7 spot in the strawweight rankings and will likely tee her up for a top-five opponent in her next outing.

UFC star Paul Costa made light of Gabi Garcia’s domestic abuse allegations with inappropriate joke

Gabi GarciaWomen’s mixed martial artist Gabi Garcia has publicly accused her husband of domestic abuse. Garcia, an undefeated fighter and accomplished Brazilian jiu-jitsu practitioner, recently took to Instagram claiming that her husband, Bruno Almeida, had been physically abusive throughout their relationship. “The time has come. It’s time to be brave and tell everyone why I’ve been […]

Gabi Garcia

Women’s mixed martial artist Gabi Garcia has publicly accused her husband of domestic abuse.

Garcia, an undefeated fighter and accomplished Brazilian jiu-jitsu practitioner, recently took to Instagram claiming that her husband, Bruno Almeida, had been physically abusive throughout their relationship.

“The time has come. It’s time to be brave and tell everyone why I’ve been away for the past two years,” Garcia said. “They were the worst years of my life, but I’ll show all the details at the end of this week. I didn’t think this could ever happen. That someone could be so bad. A criminal. A person who has commited crimes before and after he was with me. A person who has money and asked for pension, my purses, my earrings. Asking for my house. Using the name Garcia.”

“Married, with a son and using my last name. A person who says she is a child of God, who went to my wedding and wrote ‘God bless you’ is still his lover,” Garcia added. “Because that guy won’t divorce me. Even with a restraining order and the Maria da Penha law (A Brazilian law created to protect women who were victim of domestic violence) by my side, he didn’t stop. There are 19 cases of fraud on my credit card, closed my accounts in three different banks. I would get home to no water, no power. He took the money from my payments.

“I had to go to court to prove that I’m the owner of my own house. He lied to his lawyer by saying that it was rented. He asked for my Chanel earrings, my purse collection, pension. He had people intimidating me. Job? He doesnt’ have one. He lives on allowance from his mother. I’m posting everything. We have to believe in the law. My parents have depression, I can’t leave my house. I still have to put a finish to some wars, though. I’ll tell my fans every single detail so I can help women who have been abused,” Garcia concluded.

Paulo Costa Makes Light of Gabi Garcia’s Horrifying Situation

After pouring her heart out on social media, fans and fighters rallied around Gabi Garcia and showed their support for the Brazilian combat sports icon. Unfortunately, not everyone had something nice to say. Enter Paulo Costa, the UFC’s self-appointed comedian. Costa has developed a reputation over the last year for taking clever cracks at his co-workers. For the most part, they are genuinely humorous and relatively light-hearted, but ‘The Eraser’ appears to have stepped over the line this time.

In response to Gabi Garcia’s story, Costa tweeted out an image of the especially jacked Brazilian and asked, “Who the hell was her husband, Thanos?”

Gabi Garcia primarily competed under the RIZIN banner in Japan but she has been absent from the MMA scene since 2018 after going 6-0 to kick off her career. Garcia has remained active in submission grappling, most recently competing at the ADCC world championships last year.

Sadly, Gabi Garcia is the second female fighter to come out about the abuse she suffered at the hands of a man she once loved and trusted. Rising contender Mackenzie Dern also opened up about her experience with domestic violence following a decisive win over Angela Hill last month.

UFC star Mackenzie Dern reveals embattled relationship with estranged husband, domestic abuse accusation

Mackenzie Dern UFC embattled relationship with husband domestic abuse accusationsMackenzie Dern opened up about the ongoing battle with her estranged husband, Wesley Santos, during an appearance on The MMA Hour with Ariel Helwani. Mackenzie Dern is fresh off a big win over Angela Hill at UFC Vegas 73. Through the 25-minute affair, Dern delivered a dominant performance that moved her to the No. 7 […]

Mackenzie Dern UFC embattled relationship with husband domestic abuse accusations

Mackenzie Dern opened up about the ongoing battle with her estranged husband, Wesley Santos, during an appearance on The MMA Hour with Ariel Helwani.

Mackenzie Dern is fresh off a big win over Angela Hill at UFC Vegas 73. Through the 25-minute affair, Dern delivered a dominant performance that moved her to the No. 7 spot in the strawweight rankings. She also pocketed a well-deserved $50,000 bonus for her efforts, but as it turns out, that was not the only fight Mackenzie Dern was in the midst of.

Appearing on Wednesday’s edition of The MMA Hour, Mackenzie Dern shared details of the fractured relationship she eluded to during her post-fight interview earlier this month.

“So I feel like I’ve been having to defend myself this whole time for things that I never thought I’d have to defend myself for,” she said, later adding, “I was in a situation in my relationship where I couldn’t even defend myself, because I was getting, like, threatened that if I did anything, I’d be talking to the police and I could lose my daughter.

“So, I stayed in my relationship because I believed in the family, and I believe that that’s what God wanted and stuff. But there’s a certain point where you try, try, and try, and things don’t change, and it just keeps getting worse and worse. And then, like I was saying, I wasn’t even able to defend myself. Like, police were getting called to the house. It was just getting out of control, and going through that in front of your daughter, you don’t want your daughter to witness that.”

Santos Has Continually Denied Mackenzie Dern’s Domestic Violence Accusations

Wesley Santos vehemently denied Mackenzie Dern’s allegations in a prepared statement.

“I am disappointed that Mackenzie chose to make public statements about our divorce, especially since it involves the custody of our beautiful daughter, Moa,” he wrote. “Because we are in the middle of legal proceedings, I cannot comment on anything at this time, except to say that Mackenzie’s statements are false and defamatory.”

A month before her return to the Octagon, court documents were filed with both making domestic abuse claims as the custody battle over their three-year-old daughter, Moa, turned ugly. Dern accused Santos of repeated physical and emotional abuse, revealing that he had allegedly slammed a door on her legs whilst dragging her into their home. Dern filed a petition for a restraining order, citing domestic violence. Dern included videos showing an incident where Santos is said to have “threw my phone, water bottles, pillows, and bedding while harassing/intimidating me verbally,” according to Dern.

Santos has denied every accusation of abuse and countered Dern’s claim, stating that he was the victim of abuse. Santo also provided pictures and a video of himself with a bloody nose, the result of a punch delivered by Dern during an altercation outside of a restaurant. Santos also accused Dern of physically assaulting their daughter.

“I never physically attacked Mackenzie, she is an MMA fighter,” Santos wrote in a court filing. “I would never even try to get physical with her. I would have no chance.”

Dern and Santo will be back in court next month to rule on the restraining order filed by Dern last month and to present a final custody agreement.