Athletes
Mackenzie Dern: "I Need This Win"
Strawweight Mackenzie Dern Searches For First Main Event Win Against Angela Hill At UFC Fight Night: Dern vs Hill
Stepping into the main event spotlight for the third time in her UFC career, strawweight Mackenzie Dern returns to the Octagon hoping to rebound from defeat last October against veteran Angela Hill.
In her first UFC main event back in 2021, Dern suffered a unanimous decision defeat to Marina Rodriguez. Then a year later, Dern was given another opportunity to shine as the headliner, but fell short once more, losing via majority decision to Yan Xiaonan. After two losses in two main events at the UFC APEX, Dern had a three-round bout on her radar, preferably in front of fans. Her call was temporarily answered.
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To kick off her 2023 campaign, Dern was initially scheduled to challenge Hill at UFC Fight Night: Rozenstruik vs Almeida in Charlotte, North Carolina. The bout was scheduled for three rounds on its main card, but a main event cancellation in the UFC’s upcoming event the following week left a vacancy needing to be filled.
A five-round bout at the APEX was not on Dern’s wish list, but after giving it some considerable thought, Dern believed it wasn’t an opportunity she could turn down.
Mackenzie Dern | Submission Showcase
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Mackenzie Dern | Submission Showcase
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“Oh man, I had a little bit of trauma, a little anxiety, a little superstition, too,” Dern said. “I was kind of hoping my next main event would be with a crowd, but this is an opportunity I’m not going to say no to, to break that pattern that I have here at the APEX with my main events. It’s one week later, so the weight’s good, it’s the same fighter. Everything’s the same, just one week later, so let’s do it. I’m excited to go in there and get this win. I need this win.”
Dern’s superstitions didn’t help her difficult training camp, where numerous distractions at home disrupted her preparation for her fight with Hill. Outside of the pressures and physical demands that a training camp requires, Dern endured a divorce and a change in management.
“I was a little bit nervous,” Dern said describing her initial reaction to fighting in Saturday’s main event. “I’m 0-2 here at the APEX in my main events and I’ve had so much going on in this camp. This hasn’t been an easy camp, it’s been crazy; divorce, coaches have been out of town, I changed managers, so just everything has been so crazy, and I was hoping to get back in the win column in Charlotte [in front of] the crowd. It’s three rounds, get the win and get my life organized. And then they offered [the main event].”
One of Dern’s biggest incentives to compete at the UFC APEX this weekend was knowing her daughter Moa, 3, could be in attendance.
“The biggest thing was Moa and the divorce and [if] it’s my weekend or if she goes with her dad. Charlotte would be her dad’s weekend and this weekend now she’s with me. She was so sad she wasn’t going to come to the fights but now she’s going to come so I’m going to have her first row cheering me on.
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“It’s good to have Moa with me during fight week and even for the fight. She’s getting older. When she was younger, she’d wear headphones and just see everything but now she can hear everything and cheer for me. She gets more excited about my fights than me, so I’ll be in the car [going to] training and she’ll ask to play my walkout song. She starts to clap, she starts to get excited, and I ask, ‘Are you nervous? Do you have butterflies,’ and she’s like, ‘Yeah,’ so it’s cool to feel that. I think I’m being a good example for her and what she can learn in the future for how hard we need to work for things, and we win, we lose, but we stay focused and go after our dreams.”
While Dern was jumping over numerous hurdles the last few months, she never lost sight of creating a meticulous game plan for Hill – something she hasn’t done for previous opponents. Fighting with “tunnel vision” in the past, Dern felt that her performances weren’t tailored for the UFC’s scoring format.
Going into fights with a “kill or be killed” mentality, Dern constantly searched for submissions but didn’t have a plan B if that failed. That single-minded approach allowed fighters to accumulate strikes, take control of the fight and ultimately win on the judges’ scorecards.
“Sometimes it would look like I was so anxious to get in there and take [my opponent] down, and maybe for some people it looked like I wasn’t even that comfortable in there when really I’m so comfortable in there, but I just get so excited and confident and I want to submit someone so bad that I’d just go,” Dern said. “I’d finish the round and I’d be like, ‘Oh, did I win that round?’ I wouldn’t have any idea if I won, how I was, how did the judges see it.
“Now I know I need to take my time, understand that I need to steal the round if I need to if I’m not able to get the submission…I have 25 minutes to submit my opponent; it’s a lot of time. [Also] patience and understanding what’s going on and how I can persuade the judges and understand how the judges are a part of the fight game; it’s not just kill or be killed, even though that’s my style. I don’t think I’ll ever lose that style, but I feel like my losses have been more because of that, because I didn’t understand how I can steal it, if I didn’t get the submission, from the judges.”
Dern vs Hill Main Event Preview
If she’s unable to get a finish over Hill, Dern vows to improve her aggression, Octagon control and overall damage and output, something she believes sets the best apart from the contenders. Dern hopes to execute that gameplan efficiently against Angela Hill this Saturday.
Hill’s earned herself back-to-back victories for the first time since 2020 and has never looked better inside the Octagon. Not only does Hill hope to carry on her success in what could be her biggest test to date, she set high goals for herself during her interview with UFC.com, stating that she hopes to defeat Dern, the division’s most prolific grappler, by submission.
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“That’s a real step-on-me kind of thing like, ‘Yeah you’re the jiu-jitsu girl but I’m going to submit you,’” Dern said. “I know she’s not going to be easy to submit, but I’m prepared for everything and I’m definitely going to come in hard, too, and it will be a good fight.
“I think I’m going to be fighting the best Angela Hill so far. I think she’s evolved, even in the last couple fights, so I’m excited about that. Iron sharpens iron and I think that we’re going to put on a good fight. I want the best Angela Hill. I’m glad I’m fighting her now and not in the beginning of her career or my career. I think we’re both at a good, high level, so that makes for a high-level fight. With her experience, she’s definitely not someone I want to let get ahead and start to be able to go to the judges’ decision because she does have a lot of wins and losses by decision, so I don’t want to play that game with her. I want to put pressure and not let her feel comfortable.”
UFC Fight Night: Dern vs Hill took place live from the UFC APEX in Las Vegas, Nevada on May 20, 2023. See the Final Results, Official Scorecards and Who Won Bonuses - and relive the action on UFC Fight Pass!
