UFC women’s strawweight Mackenzie Dern faced off against Amanda Cooper in her sophomore octagon appearance over the weekend. While Dern put on a stunning performance over her opponent, the fighter has been receiving backlash for grossly missing weight for the event. Now Dominick Cruz has come forward with his thoughts on the matter.
Cooper and Dern went toe-to-toe in a catchweight bout on the live pay-per-view main card of UFC 224 in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil on Saturday, May 12. Dern missed weight for the fight by a staggering total of 7.4 pound, drawing the ire of many UFC competitors.
Speaking during the FOX broadcast, former UFC bantamweight champion turned commentator Dominick Cruz offered his thoughts on the situation.
“That weight is a huge advantage. There’s a reason, ladies and gentlemen, why we have weight classes. When you’re seven pounds over a weight class, that is not trying to make weight. That is creating yourself an advantage to win. Because in the end, how sad was Dern about the weight loss or being too heavy? She was just happy to have the win.
“That’s the point of this sport to win and when you come in with that big of a weight advantage, being a 45’er to a 35’er, being a 35’er to a 25’er, being a 85’er to a 70 pounder, that’s an advantage. That’s a huge advantage and it’s basically cheating in my opinion.”
