Mackenzie Dern was confident enough that she would hit the strawweight limit until she faced the bitter truth after arriving for the UFC 224 official weigh-ins in Brazil. She weighed 139. 5 pounds when she arrived in Brazil on Tuesday. However, she was 129 pounds when she stepped on the weighing scale on Friday morning.
She became the talk of the MMA world on Friday when she arrived at the fight week gaining seven pounds which is more than the 116-pound strawweight limit for her showdown with Amanda Cooper. She was then fine with a 30 percent amount of her purse for the issue, but that was not enough to stop her from playing and defeating Cooper in the first round of their showdown.
However, still, most of the conversation was based on Dern’s her professionalism and commitment towards the sport, especially after the news about her being ‘invited’ to leave Coach John Crouch and MMA lab came to the fore. The questions increased further as she was asked about how she was taking this transition to MMA.
While talking to Ariel Helwani on the MMA Hour, Dern said that the commission wanted to take her down when she arrived weighing 139.5 pounds. And later on, Wednesday when she weighed, she was 131. It was then that the commission allowed her to keep on cutting the weight. All of this was a little crazy as she had to do a pre-hydration to show that she could get a reduced weight as per the commission’s number on Wednesday.
Finally, Derns was able to cut the weight and was able to play the fight with Cooper.
Dern said, “I learned a lot from this, and I know this is just making me a better fighter/athlete for the future.”
