Mackenzie Dern – “I think me and Rose (Namajunas) would be a great next fight”
Ahead of her UFC Vegas 73 headlining bout this Saturday, Mackenzie Dern spoke with CBS Sports’ Shakiel Mahjouri. The 30-year-old Brazilian jiu jitsu specialist will face Angela Hill at the UFC Apex in Las Vegas, Nevada on May 20.
Quotes below.
Mackenzie Dern on complications of having the fight pushed back a week:
“Really just the mental fatigue you have after having a whole camp. You schedule your whole camp and train so that you reach your best moment on the day of the fight. You’re getting there and suddenly it’s like, ‘Oh shoot. It’s pushed back.’ One week isn’t that big of a push compared to a month, but you’re so ready for it to be over with. You’re so ready to go there and punch someone and take them down and choke them. Go out there and get the win and put all that energy from training into the fight. At the same time, you have one more time to train more and prepare yourself.”
Mackenzie Dern wants Rose Namajunas next:
“I would like to fight a former champion. They had talked about Carla Esparza before, they talked about Jessica Andrade and they talked about Rose. I think me and Rose would be a great next fight.”
Mackenzie Dern predicts Zhang Weili vs. Amanda Lemos:
“I think Amanda Lemos is going to get the win. She hits hard. I think she even fought at 135 in the past. She definitely has weight in her hands. I think she’s made the cut to strawweight really well. She got submitted by Jessica, it was a crazy fight, but I think she’s going to come in strong against Zhang Weili.”
Mackenzie Dern on naivety coming into MMA and maturing as a fighter:
“I was an athlete, and because of my hype and stuff like that, maybe I was getting passed around by a lot of people wanting to help me and give me information. A lot of people wanted to teach me all these things. Everyone wanted me to win their way.
You don’t really know the game. You don’t know who all the top people are. Who are the best coaches and who has the best camp? I went from the [MMA] Lab to Blackhouse, I trained in Brazil, RVCA… You’re naive when you get into this. You’re a nice person and everyone is offering you management. Everyone promises you all these things. ‘You’re going to be the next big star and this and that and money.’ It’s easy for you to lose sight of the big picture.”
Full video timestamps below:
0:00 – Teaser
0:10 – Intro
0:56 – Complications of short notice main event
3:32 – Mackenzie Dern vs Angela Hill preview
5:20 – Rose Namajunas fight next
6:19 – Reacting to Yan Xioanan’s KO of Jessica Andrade
7:46 – Zhang Weili vs. Amanda Lemos prediction
8:31 – Competition at women’s strawweight
9:14 – Maturing in the cage, wrestling vs. striking
11:50 – Being pulled every way
15:32 – Rapidfire: Top submission fighters, home remedies and more
