Mackenzie Dern accepted a late notice call to fight at UFC 298, one she wasn’t expecting considering her last performance against Jessica Andrade.
Amanda Lemos was originally scheduled to take on Tatiana Suarez, but Suarez pulled out due to injury. Dern got the call and accepted the late notice opportunity to try and return to the win column.
At the UFC 298 media day, the 30-year-old admitted she didn’t think the UFC would call her to step in to fight Lemos, and ideally would have had a full camp to prepare for the hard hitter.
“I didn’t think I’d get the call so soon especially because I just fought in November, and then Tiki (manager) called me and said we’ve got a fight for you, and I’m like who, and he says Amanda Lemos. I’m like oh my gosh, so I was so excited for Anaheim, but when they told me it’s against Lemos, I was like that’s a hard one. For the perfect world, I would think to fight her would be with a good camp, a longer camp.
“At the same time, how can you say no to this? She’s ahead of me I’m just coming off a loss, usually when we lose we have to kind of marinate that for a long time until we can get a win back in. She just fought for the belt so I really feel like a good win over her can keep me where I need to be and where I want to be to get to the belt.”
With there being a big event landing in Brazil in May, Mackenzie Dern wants to try and get on that card, if everything goes well this weekend.
“Hopefully no injuries after this fight but I’d like to get on that card in May in Brazil. My last one there I got a knockdown and then I went to the submission, so I’d like to be able to get another great performance there.”
Watch the whole UFC 298 media day appearance from Mackenzie Dern above.
