Mackenzie Dern Removed From The UFC Strawweight Rankings

This week the Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) made changes to their official rankings and one of the fighters impacted in the strawweight division was jiu-jitsu sensation Mackenzie Dern. Here’s a look at the current rankings which no longer …

This week the Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) made changes to their official rankings and one of the fighters impacted in the strawweight division was jiu-jitsu sensation Mackenzie Dern. Here’s a look at the current rankings which no longer include the California native. WOMEN’S STRAWWEIGHT Champion: Rose Namajunas 1 Joanna Jedrzejczyk 2 Jessica Andrade 3 Claudia […]

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Vitor Belfort: I Couldn’t Pull Out Of My Retirement Fight At UFC 224

During the first week of his UFC 224 training camp, before his fight against Lyoto Machida, Vitor Belfort suffered a knee injury and was advised to pull out of his fight by doctors. Vitor Belfort decided to go against doctors advice and face Machida at…

During the first week of his UFC 224 training camp, before his fight against Lyoto Machida, Vitor Belfort suffered a knee injury and was advised to pull out of his fight by doctors. Vitor Belfort decided to go against doctors advice and face Machida at UFC 224. Belfort suffered a devastating knockout at the hands […]

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Mackenzie Dern: I Can Guarantee I Won’t Miss Weight Again

Mackenzie Dern guaranteed she’ll never miss weight again. You buying?

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Hyped women’s strawweight prospect Mackenzie Dern was the talk of the UFC last week when she missed weight by seven pounds heading into her bout with Amanda Cooper at UFC 224 from Rio de Janeiro.

Even though she weighed in at nearly a full weight class above Cooper, her opponent chose to continue with the bout at a catchweight after Dern relinquished 30 percent of her purse to her. Dern won the match with an impressive first-round submission after rocking skilled striker Cooper with a huge overhand right.

She then made even more headlines by somehow debuting on the official strawweight rankings despite her saying the UFC wanted her to fight her next contest in the new UFC women’s flyweight division. The vast weight miss prompted an obvious backlash from her critics on social media, and her rankings debut lead to some longer-tenured fighters in her division such as Felice Herrig and Angela Hill questioning the decision.

Regardless of your opinion of her, Dern has fans and media members talking, and that could mean her perceived position as one of the future stars in MMA is coming true.

Dern knows that her hype coupled with her weight miss comes with an amount of backlash. After what she saw online last week, she revealed on this week’s episode of The MMA Hour that some of it was hard to take seriously even though she knows it’s a serious issue she has to corral:

“It’s kind of crazy. I see people putting hamburgers in my hands. I want to take it serious and I want to show that this won’t happen again, but with some of the memes and stuff I have to laugh. It’s kind of crazy.”

A lot of the criticism directed towards her was due to the fact that she appeared to be a much bigger fighter than Cooper when the two finally met, and it’s not hard to see why when she weighed in at nearly the flyweight limit after reportedly arriving in Brazil at a lofty 139 pounds and finding herself unable to stand.

Yet while many claimed she was the much bigger fighter against Cooper, Dern said they were close in weight when they touched down in Brazil and didn’t feel all that much heavier in the octagon:

“As soon as I arrived the UFC weighed us and I was 138 and she was 134 or 135, so as soon as I saw that it thought, ‘She’s almost my size’. I knew my right punch was strong from the times I hit her, but I didn’t feel so much heavier or something. I wasn’t thinking about the weight anymore.”

She won the fight in dominant fashion, but the questions about her ability to make strawweight – a division in which she’s missed weight three times in six scheduled bouts – left her next fight’s weight class truly uncertain. With talk she should move up rampant, Dern confirmed her desire to stay at 115 pounds with the help of the UFC Performance Institute in Las Vegas.

The hyped submission wiz said she’s made weight at strawweight before, and closed with a guarantee she wouldn’t miss the mark again:

“I want to stay at strawweight. Hopefully, with the help of UFC Performance Institute it will be a lot easier and it will all be under control. If they told me, ‘It’s not good for you to fight at 115’, then I would go to 125. I’ve made 115 before, three times, so I think it’s a better weight for me.”

“I can guarantee [that I won’t miss weight again].”

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UFC Strawweights Slam Mackenzie Dern’s Debut On Rankings

Two UFC strawweights are very displeased with Mackenzie Dern’s rankings debut…

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Brazilian submission specialist Mackenzie Dern has skyrocketed through the strawweight division and has now broken into the top 15, but not everyone supports her presence in the top 15.

Especially Angela Hill and Felice Herrig, both of whom were bounced out of the top ten rankings to make room for Dern.

Both women recently took to social media to express their contempt for Dern’s presence on the strawweight top 15 rankings:

I’m going to weigh in on the @ufc #strawweight rankings with at least 7.5lbs of factual perspective: 1- For the most part 1-5 are pretty accurate across all weight divisions, but after that the rankings are a crap shoot. 2- These days hype trains seem to be gifted rankings over actually having to fight to the top. 3- #McenzieDern misses weight by 7.5 pounds, which makes her closer to a #Flyweight than strawweight. She beats an unranked fighter and takes @angieoverkill well earned #15 spot when her only actual win in the ufc as a #straweight was to #Ashleyyoder. McEnzie won by a very close split decision, while Angela won unanimously. So why does Angela get bumped?? 4- Justine Kish isn’t even in the top 15, although she beat #14 #NinaAnsaroff unanimously and #11 #RandaMarkos. Justine did move up to Flyweight but so did #calderwood. So why is Calderwood even in the rankings anymore? 5- If #waterson is #7 & I’m #8 then 9,10 & 11 are all out of order… 6- I beat #Grasso unanimous decision , I beat #casey split. Waterson beats casey split decision. Casey finishes Markos, while Grasso takes her to split. So the rankings should actually be: #7 Waterson #8 Herrig #9 Casey #10 Grasso #11 Markos Even if Dern made weigh there is no factual reasoning as to why or how she could take Angela’s spot other than a massive glitch in the matrix. LBD out!

A post shared by Felice Herrig (@feliceherrig) on

Dern blasted through UFC 224 opponent Amanda Bobby Cooper with a nasty overhand right immediately followed up by a lightning-quick submission in the first round. However, Dern missed weight for that fight by seven pounds, coming in at a whopping 123 pounds for a 115-pound contest. Cooper accepted the catchweight bout regardless, and the rest is history.

UFC 224 marked the third time in Dern’s undefeated MMA career that she’s missed the strawweight limit, and even though the submission ace sports an impressive 7-0, the Cooper victory wasn’t actually a strawweight fight, making Dern’s ascent into the top 15 dubious at best.

Hill and Herrig rightfully put Dern and the UFC voters on blast for it, criticizing Dern’s replacement of Hill in the rankings. The overall themes of their criticism revolve around the fact that Dern didn’t even come close to making the strawweight limit and that other strawweights are far more deserving of Dern’s ranking and promotion.

Champion Rose Namajunas lords over the strawweight division with two victories over former kingpin Joanna J?drzejczyk.

Is Dern’s ranking legitimate or is it a product of the UFC marketing machine?

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Bisping: It Was Satisfying To See Machida Knock Out Belfort

Michael Bisping loved every second of Vitor Belfort’s knockout loss to Lyoto Machida.

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There’s no love lost between former UFC middleweight champion Michael Bisping and former opponent Vitor Belfort, as “The Count” said it was satisfying to see Belfort get front kicked into unconsciousness by Lyoto Machida at UFC 224 last weekend.

Bisping gave his thoughts on the fight during the most recent episode of his “Believe You Me” podcast, and didn’t hold back in classic Bisping fashion:

“It’s very satisfying to see him lose if I’m honest. I don’t care for the guy. I think he’s built a career off being a cheat. The amount of insane steroids that he’s done over his life, over his career, is evident to see. I mean you go back and look at him in his early career, the guy was insanely jacked. When we fought he was insanely jacked, and now you look at him and he looks like a f**king beat up old man, and he’s getting knocked out like so and he’s performing like so. When he was juiced out of his mind, [he was] just f**king tearing through everybody.”

Bisping and Belfort headlined a UFC on FX event back in 2013, when Belfort’s use of testosterone replacement therapy was at its most rampant due to lax drug testing enforcement. “The Phenom” was an animal during his TRT years, head kicking Luke Rockhold, Bisping, and Dan Henderson into oblivion.

Bisping now has a permanent eye injury from the Belfort fight, and despite the fact that Machida actually called Bisping out following the Belfort knockout, Bisping was very complimentary of “The Dragon”:

“He has the hypocrisy to go out and talk about being a good person and this and that. The guy’s a cheat, the guy has no honor. I would have loved to have been the person to do that, but it’s kind of still enjoyable to see him get what he deserves because he’s gone out and done that to many people and caused injuries. He f**ked up my eyeball, he’s the one to blame for that, so yeah. God bless Machida. Job well done.”

Belfort officially retired and left his gloves in the cage after his UFC 224 loss in front of his native Brazilians in Rio De Janeiro.

Is Bisping just bitter over the loss to Belfort or does “The Count” have a point about Belfort’s nefarious past?

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Report: Vitor Belfort Fought With Significant Injury At UFC 224

Reports of a knee injury for Belfort emerge just days after his retirement fight against Lyoto Machida…

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UFC legend and former champion Vitor Belfort suffered a knee injury a week into his UFC 224 training camp for fellow Brazilian MMA legend Lyoto Machida.

Machida ultimately knocked Belfort out with a front head kick in the second round in front of a raucous Brazilian crowd.

Combate was the first to report the injury, which was so bad that several doctors suggested a Belfort pull out of the fight, but “The Phenom” refused to withdraw.

The 41-year-old Belfort retired after his loss at UFC 224, and left his gloves in the cage to officially put an end to a career that spanned decades.

Does news of the injury change your opinion on his preparation and ability against Machida? Or is this an excuse to justify a possible comeback?

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