Tag: Mackenzie Dern

UFC 295 pre-event facts: Alex Pereira’s two-division title bid comes with historic twist

Check out the facts behind UFC 295, where Alex Pereira can join the two-division titleholder club in a way that differs from everyone else.

The UFC makes its annual stop in New York on Saturday with UFC 295, which takes place at Madison Square Garden with a pair of title fights that top the pay-per-view main card following prelims on ESPNews and ESPN+.

In the main event, [autotag]Jiri Prochazka[/autotag] (29-3-1 MMA, 3-0 UFC) will return to competition from a significant injury to face [autotag]Alex Pereira[/autotag] (8-2 MMA, 5-1 UFC) for the vacant light heavyweight belt. The co-headliner will see [autotag]Sergei Pavlovich[/autotag] (17-1 MMA, 6-1 UFC) clash with [autotag]Tom Aspinall[/autotag] (13-3 MMA, 6-1 UFC) in an interim heavyweight championship contest.

For more on the numbers behind the title-fight doubleheader, as well as the rest of the card, check below for MMA Junkie’s post-event facts from UFC 295.

Henry Cejudo: ‘Future is bright’ for Mackenzie Dern, just needs ‘a good tactical game plan’

Henry Cejudo sees plenty of potential in Mackenzie Dern.

[autotag]Henry Cejudo[/autotag] sees plenty of potential in [autotag]Mackenzie Dern[/autotag].

Dern (13-3 MMA, 8-3 UFC) meets former champion Jessica Andrade (24-12 MMA, 15-10 UFC) at UFC 295 on Nov. 11 at Madison Square Garden in New York. The event airs on pay-per-view following prelims expected on ESPN and ESPN+.

Former UFC dual-champion and Olympic gold medalist wrestler Cejudo has been working on fine tuning Dern’s game, and believes a few adjustments could lead her to the title.

“Mackenzie’s a talent, man,” Cejudo said on his YouTube channel. “She’s a multiple-time world champion in the sport of jiu-jitsu. The biggest question that I have for her: How is it that she can transition into mixed martial arts and still have the same principles that she used in jiu-jitsu? A lot of what Mackenzie needs is just a good tactical game plan and just positions on technique – not over-moving, not doing these unnecessary movements, getting from point A to point B.

“The most important thing for her is her discipline. Can she stay disciplined for 15 minutes or 25 minutes? She’s probably a fight away from fighting for the title if she’s able to win this fight against Jessica Andrade. … She’s all eyes. She’s all ears. The key is to actually do it in the fight.”

Dern is coming off one of her most impressive showings to date, a dominant Fight of the Night decision win over Angela Hill in the UFC Fight Night 224 headliner in May. Cejudo likes what he’s seen out of Dern in their trainings so far.

“So far, so good,” Cejudo said on working with Dern. “If she does things right, and she’s able to bring those principles back and finds the right engineers, the future is bright for her.”

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For more on the card, visit MMA Junkie’s event hub for UFC 295.

Matchup Roundup: New UFC and Bellator fights announced in the past week (Aug. 14-20)

All the UFC and Bellator fight announcements that were first reported or confirmed by MMA Junkie in the past week.

MMA fight announcements are hard to follow. With so many outlets and channels available, it’s nearly impossible to organize.

But here at MMA Junkie, we’ve got your back.

Each week, we’ll compile all the newly surfaced fights in one spot. Every Monday, expect a feature listing everything you might have missed from the UFC or Bellator.

Here are the fight announcements that were broken or confirmed by MMA Junkie or officially announced by a promotion from Aug. 14-20.

Jessica Andrade books fifth fight of 2023, meets Mackenzie Dern at UFC 295 in New York

Jessica Andrade will look to tie the record for most fights in a year at UFC 295.

[autotag]Jessica Andrade[/autotag] will look to tie the record for most fights in a year at UFC 295.

Andrade (24-12 MMA, 15-10 UFC) takes on [autotag]Mackenzie Dern[/autotag] (13-3 MMA, 8-3 UFC) on Nov. 11 at Madison Square Garden in New York. The event airs on pay-per-view following prelims expected on ESPN and ESPN+.

The matchup was announced during Saturday’s UFC 292 broadcast and later was confirmed by Andrade on social media.

Having already competed four times in 2023, Andrade will tie the UFC record for most fights in a calendar year when she makes the walk against Dern, and will become the only female fighter to do so. But Andrade finds herself in unfamiliar territory. The former UFC strawweight champion has lost three straight for the first time in her career, most recently a submission setback to unbeaten Tatiana Suarez earlier this month in the UFC on ESPN 50 co-main event.

Dern has split her past four appearances. After dropping a five-round majority decision to Yan Xiaonan last October, the jiu-jitsu blackbelt ace rebounded with a Fight of the Night effort against Angela Hill in May – in what was her third career headliner.

With the addition, the UFC 295 lineup currently includes:

  • Jon Jones vs. Stipe Miocic – for heavyweight title
  • Derek Brunson vs. Roman Dolidze
  • Kevin Borjas vs. Joshua Van
  • Jessica Andrade vs. Mackenzie Dern

For more on the card, visit MMA Junkie’s event hub for UFC 295.

Mackenzie Dern: Amanda Lemos is going to knock out Zhang Weili at UFC 292

Mackenzie Dern explains why she sees Amanda Lemos becoming the new UFC strawweight champion at UFC 292.

UFC strawweight contender [autotag]Mackenzie Dern[/autotag] sees a new champion soon being crowned in her division.

Dern believes that champion Zhang Weili will lose her belt when she squares off against challenger [autotag]Amanda Lemos[/autotag] at UFC 292 on Aug. 19 in Boston. Not only does Dern (13-3 MMA, 8-3 UFC) see Weili losing, but she also sees her getting stopped.

“I think Amanda Lemos is going to knock her out,” Dern told Michael Bisping in a recent interview. “Amanda Lemos is a hard fight. She’s probably one of the last persons on my list that I want to fight right now.”

Dern, who’s coming off a unanimous decision win over veteran Angela Hill, knows Weili is a tough adversary and currently the world’s best at 115 pounds. But she believes Lemos is bound to catch her in 25 minutes of fighting.

“From what I saw with Rose (Namajunas) catching her (Weili) on the chin with that kick and was just kind of like ‘boom,’ on the spot, precise, I can see Amanda Lemos like hanging on,” Dern explained. “She’s hard to knock out, she has a good base. I don’t see Weili like Jessica Andrade with big biceps and that style to submit her, even though I know Zhang has a ground game. I think in 25 minutes, she can land a shot that will knock her out.”

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For more on the card, visit MMA Junkie’s event hub for UFC 292.

MMA Junkie’s Fight of the Month for May: Short-notice newcomer thrills in defeat

With another action-packed month of MMA in the books, MMA Junkie looks at the best fights from May 2023.

With another action-packed month of MMA in the books, MMA Junkie looks at the best fights from May 2023. Here are the five nominees, listed in chronological order, and winner of MMA Junkie’s Fight of the Month award for May.

At the bottom of the post, let us know if we got it right by voting on your choice.

USA TODAY Sports/MMA Junkie rankings, May 23: Mackenzie Dern stays put, middleweight breaks through

Check out the latest moves in the USA TODAY Sports/MMA Junkie rankings coming out of UFC Fight Night 224.

On paper, UFC Fight Night 224 wasn’t a card filled with big names, but it still factored into this week’s USA TODAY Sports/MMA Junkie rankings.

The event took place Saturday at the UFC Apex in Las Vegas, where [autotag]Mackenzie Dern[/autotag] scored a dominant win over Angela Hill in the night’s strawweight main event, while the co-headliner featured middleweight [autotag]Anthony Hernandez[/autotag] finishing Edmen Shahbazyan with ground-and-pound in Round 3.

Still, just one of those UFC Fight Night 224 winners made waves in our rankings, with “Fluffy” pushing his winning streak to four fights and landing among the honorable mentions at the expense of former Bellator champion Gegard Mousasi.

Check out all the latest pound-for-pound and divisional USA TODAY Sports/MMA Junkie rankings above.

Dana White reacts to Mackenzie Dern’s callout of Rose Namajunas after UFC Fight Night 224

Dana White says Mackenzie Dern is in “a really good position” after defeating Angela Hill at UFC Fight Night 224.

LAS VEGAS – UFC president [autotag]Dana White[/autotag] walked out of the UFC Apex Saturday impressed with the performance of [autotag]Mackenzie Dern[/autotag].

In the main event of UFC Fight Night 224, Dern (13-3 MMA, 8-3 UFC) dominated Angela Hill over the course of 25 minutes to win a one-sided unanimous decision. After the fight, Dern called out former two-time strawweight champion Rose Namajunas, as she wants to add a big name to her resume.

During the post-event news conference, White was asked what he thinks about the callout and if that’s a fight that could be next for both fighters.

“I don’t know, but that’s a fun fight too,” White told reporters. “Mackenzie’s in a really good position after tonight’s performance. She’s never looked meaner than she looked tonight.

“She came out on a mission, man. She looked like she was in great shape. She fought hard for five rounds. Her stand up was on point. She hurt Angela Hill several times with her standup and was all over her on the ground. Other than pulling off a knockout or a sub, she couldn’t have had a better performance than tonight, so I think anything is possible for her.”

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The victory was Dern’s eighth of her UFC career, and a rebound from a majority decision loss to Yan Xiaonan in October. After going through a number of changes in her personal life and professional, Dern believes she’s ready to take things to the next level by challenging a former champion.

Namajunas (11-5 MMA, 9-4 UFC) dropped the strawweight title in her previous outing, a highly-criticized bout against Carla Esparza at UFC 274 last year. Aside from competing against fellow UFC fighter Gillian Robertson at Fury Pro Grappling 6 in December, Namajunas has been quiet, and doesn’t have a fight scheduled.

White appears to think the matchup would be a good one, but it’s far too soon to know if it could together to meet Dern’s wishes for her next main event outing. The UFC boss loved Dern’s latest work inside the cage, which could bode well for her matchmaking going forward.

“Mackenzie Dern looked unbelievable tonight,” White said. “So aggressive. I don’t know what you guys thought, but I thought this was going to be one of those fights where Angela Hill came out stand up, try to take it to her, and Mackenzie was going to do everything in her power to get it to the ground to try and submit her. To see Mackenzie’s stand up – the punches, the knees actually hurting Angela Hill, who’s tough as nails – then on the flip side, Angela Hill, who’s so tough and durable getting into these positions. … It was a badass fight. It was as good of a main event as you could ever hope for.”

For more on the card, visit MMA Junkie’s event hub for UFC Fight Night 224.

Dana White discusses McGregor vs. Chandler, Usman vs. Chimaev, BMF title, more after UFC Fight Night 224

Dana White touched on a number of topics after UFC Fight Night 224 at the UFC Apex in Las Vegas.

LAS VEGAS – UFC president Dana White spoke to the media Saturday night following the completion of UFC Fight Night 224.

He addressed various topics at the UFC Apex in Las Vegas, including the main event between [autotag]Mackenzie Dern[/autotag] and [autotag]Angela Hill[/autotag], booking [autotag]Conor McGregor[/autotag] vs. [autotag]Michael Chandler[/autotag], [autotag]Kamaru Usman[/autotag] vs. [autotag]Khamzat Chimaev[/autotag], the return of the BMF title, and more.

You can watch White’s full post-event news conference above, plus check out a transcription of some of the topics he covered below.

For more on the card, visit MMA Junkie’s event hub for UFC Fight Night 224.

Mackenzie Dern relieved to air personal issues ahead of UFC Fight Night 224: ‘It was good for me to just let it out there’

Mackenzie Dern didn’t intend to have her personal issues grab headlines before UFC Fight Night 224, but is glad everything is out there now.

LAS VEGAS – UFC strawweight contender [autotag]Mackenzie Dern[/autotag] didn’t intend to have her personal issues at the forefront of fight week, but is glad everything came to light.

Ahead of her UFC Fight Night 224 main event bout against Angela Hill at the UFC Apex in Las Vegas, Dern (13-3 MMA, 8-3 UFC) detailed a tumultuous fight camp that included a number of personal hurdles such as changing managers and going through a divorce.

“I didn’t come here with the intention to say like, ‘Oh yeah, all my problems that I’m going through,'” Dern told reporters at the post-fight news conference. “But it was good for me to just let it out there and for people to see we go through things like this. Divorce, child support, all these things, you know? Managers and people wanting all these things from you. It’s like since I’ve been into the MMA world, I’ve always had people wanting to pull me in all these different directions, and I’m learning the sport too. I come from jiu-jitsu, I don’t come from MMA, so I’m learning so much. I didn’t really have a path, you know?

So now, to be able to let everyone know you’re going through this, but I’m still here and I had a great performance, I think – and yeah, it didn’t stop me. We can’t let people stop us from going after our dreams.”

A great performance, indeed. Despite all of the family problems and professional changes, Dern still had to find a way to stay focused on the task of defeating Hill (15-13 MMA, 10-13 UFC). Not only did Dern get the job done by winning a dominant unanimous decision in her third UFC main event, she perhaps looked better than ever.

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Dern’s changes came after a majority decision loss to Yan Xiaonan in October. It was her second fight of 2022, which halted the momentum of a split decision win over Teica Torres last April. While Dern is focused on challenging former champion Rose Namajunas, she wouldn’t mind running it back with Xiaonan.

“I would like a rematch with Yan,” Dern said. “I think she had a great performance with Jessica (Andrade). I think it was a really close fight. So, I would like to get a rematch with her if Rose wasn’t available, or even Jessica Andrade, who’s a former champion too. Definitely someone ahead of me.”

For now, Dern is happy to get back on track with an impressive win in a main event Fight of the Night battle. She was able to display physical and strategic improvements through the course of the fight. However, overcoming the personal challenges that people couldn’t see made this win special for Dern.

“People see us like we’re super heroes and all we do is fight and train all day and we’re mean, but no,” Dern said. “We go through things all the time. We’re regular people. We just fight for a living.”

For more on the card, visit MMA Junkie’s event hub for UFC Fight Night 224.