Mackenzie Dern has addressed missing weight for her bout at last night’s (Sat., May 12, 2018) UFC 224 from Jeunesse Arena in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.
It was the big news on Friday and a lot of people criticized her for doing so as it was a bad weight cut. Dern missed weight by weighing in at 123 pounds for the fight that was supposed to take place in the strawweight (116 pounds max.) division.
Her opponent at the show, Amanda Cooper, did make weight and criticized her for not making weight. As seen on the main card of UFC 224 Dern picked up a first-round submission win over Cooper. The popular but now controversial prospect, who holds a 7-0 record in professional MMA, made her promotional debut against Ashley Yoder at UFC 222, where she scored a split decision win.
After the fight, Dern addressed missing weight by talking to the media who attended this latest pay-per-view event for the promotion. In terms of what happened to make her miss weight so egregiously, she thinks it all starts with her last fight that took place a few months ago.
“I’m ashamed of that,” Dern said at the UFC 224 post-fight press conference (transcript courtesy of MMA Fighting). “I don’t want that to happen again. I can tell you 10,000 excuses, but I really believe that what happened with my weight is way back months ago in my last fight,” Dern said. “I think I need to get my diet right and the fact I was able to do it before, I thought I knew what I was doing. A lot of things have been happening. It’s not an excuse, missed flights and a lot of things happened and I just kept going and going.”
“On Thursday night, i was a bit nervous and I talked to my manager with everyone and I said ‘this is rough I don’t know how this is going to go tomorrow let’s see’” Dern said. “But on Friday I woke up at 6 a.m., I went to the sauna, we were trying and trying, my mind was fine, I was conscious, but there was a point where the weight wasn’t going away any more. The commission was already there and when 9 o’clock came, the weigh-ins were from 9-11 I was there for two hours and I only lost 500 grams and they said you’re not going to make weight, so then they were looking to make catchweight. I tried my hardest, it wasn’t my decision to stop, but the commission and my manager and everyone made the decision.”
“I felt that even if I won, that people would say it is because of my weight,” Dern said. “I didn’t think about it, the only thing I thought is that I’m going to go out there and do my best. I think what helped the most is that I fought in Brazil. I think if I fought anywhere, Vegas or another place, I would have felt it more. But I knew that fighting here in Brazil, representing Brazil, I know how Brazilians support their athletes in any form, regardless of anything. The people support me either way.”
Dern did make it clear that she plans on never letting this happen again, and a way of making sure it does not is to go to the UFC Performance Institute in Las Vegas, Nevada.
“My manager said the UFC wants me to move up in weight. I believe that’s what they want,” Dern said. “On Friday, [UFC matchmaker] Mick [Maynard] called me and said we have an institute here in Vegas, and we’re going to invest in you, we want you here, we’re going to work with you, so I said OK I’m going to work for you guys. I can’t lose that opportunity to get all that out from this organization which is so big and help me make weight. They told me even without a fight, they’re going to make me make weight and they’re going to stay on me, but that’s what I need. Not that it’s not important I believe in what they’re offering to me. I’m going to take their help. “
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