UFC women’s strawweight Mackenzie Dern missed weight for her UFC 224 match up by a staggering total of 7.4 pounds. Now the fighter has come forward with her thoughts on the matter.
While Dern missed weight, the Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu phenom went on to earn a dominant submission victory over Amanda Cooper in her sophomore octagon performance at UFC 224 on Saturday, May 12. Speaking at the UFC 224 Post-Fight Press Conference, Dern revealed that she still feels “ashamed” for not making weight.
“I’m ashamed of that. 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. 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. 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.”
“My manager said the UFC wants me to move up in weight. I believe that’s what they want. 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.”
“Not that one thing is worse than the other but I don’t take steroids, I wasn’t popping. There were champions who popped for cocaine and things like that. For me, it is a mistake. The UFC is investing in me and I’m going to work with them for that to never happen again.”
