Mackenzie Dern didn’t just miss the strawweight limit, she nearly missed the entire weight class ahead of UFC 224 in Rio.
There’s missing weight, and then there’s nearly weighing in the next weight class up. That’s what Mackenzie Dern did Friday at the UFC 224 weigh-ins in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. However, despite weighing in at a whopping 123lbs for a 115lb strawweight bout against Amanda Bobby Cooper (given it’s a non-title affair, she had a 1lb allowance on top of that), Dern will get to fight regardless.
She’ll just be a little lighter in another area when she does so — in the pocketbook. Dern was fined 10% of her purse by the Brazilian athletic commission. Above and beyond that, the UFC opted to take an additional 20% of her pay and hand it to Cooper, per a report by MMA Fighting. That means Dern has lost %30 of her purse before ever stepping in the cage. Dern did not make a second attempt to weigh in.
It’s not the first time the Brazilian Jiu-jitsu standout has struggled to make weight. Though she hit the 115lb limit for her UFC debut earlier this year, Dern twice missed the mark in her pre-UFC days. And though flyweight has been an option for some time outside of the UFC, it seemed Dern was committed to sticking with strawweight as her home.
That may change moving forward, however. The blown weight cut also comes at a critical time for Dern. She was recently asked to leave The MMA Lab after issues with her conduct there, including not showing up for training sessions. Part of that, according to the MMA Lab’s John Crouch, may have been Dern splitting her time between Arizona and Californa. Dern now trains with Black House MMA in California.
In the meantime, Mackenzie Dern’s UFC 224 opponent, Amanda Bobby Cooper, weighed in on the blown weight cut via Twitter:
Not shocked @MackenzieDern missed weight but 7.4lbs over is a disgrace to all professionals. She’s not getting out of this fight that easy. Fight is still on. ABCNation get ready. #ufc224 strawweight vs flyweight tomorrow night in Brazil
— Amanda Bobby Cooper (@ABCnation115) May 11, 2018
