Despite a potentially broken hand, UFC Lincoln strawweight Cortney Casey is hoping to get back in the octagon one more time this year, and has an opponent in mind: Mackenzie Dern.
Lincoln, NB — Cortney Casey finally, mercifully, had a decision go her way Saturday night at UFC Lincoln. It was another close one, an excellent back-and-forth battle between herself and Angela Hill. One judge gave the fight to Hill, but the remaining two sided with Casey. That snapped a two-fight skid that saw her on the wrong side of a pair of split decisions.
After the bout, Casey admitted to breathing a little sigh of relief when the call went her way. “Every time it goes to the judges, man, my heart’s just like ‘okay…’ So I just thought positive,” she told media members backstage after the bout, “and really focused on just staying positive and hoping I got that W. And I ended up getting it. So I’m happy about that.”
“I needed that win for sure,” she admitted. “Coming off those two losses, [they] were a little bit rough. But I’m definitely happy to be back in the win column.” On the down side, however, Casey believed she’d broken her hand during the fight. “Hopefully the hand’s not too banged up, definitely broke it, I think in the second round for sure. But hopefully I can get back in there and get another one in before the end of the year.”
“I kind of knew right away when it happened that it was bad,’ she said of the hand injury.
After the bout, she had a potential opponent in mind for her next fight: BJJ ace Mackenzie Dern.
“No disrespect to her, I just know she’s looking for a fight,” Casey said. The pair are former teammates. There’s no bad blood between them, however. “I just want to fight. If she’s looking for a fight, come November, December, I’m ready to fight. I know Tecia [Torres] is coming off a loss too, I know she wants to get back in there, so I’m ready. I just want to fight again before the end of the year for sure. Whether it’s Tecia, whether it’s Mackenzie, whether it’s one of these girls that have fights coming up in the next couple months.”
A top ten fighter is what Casey would like. Torres would certainly fit the bill, but Dern also has star power. “I have all the respect [in the world] for Mackenzie. I know a lot of people don’t want to fight her because of who she is, but I do know she’s looking for a fight,” Casey explained. “And if she needs a fight, I’m ready to fight. But it’s not a callout or a bash to Mackenzie at all, I love her to death. But yeah, it was just more or less, she wants a fight, no one will fight her. And you guys know me, I’ll fight anyone, anywhere, at any time.”
Once the hand is healed up, anyway. But Casey was sure to add that “it’s just a hand. I’ve got another one I can use.”
