Somehow, Mackenzie Dern’s a ranked UFC strawweight.
At UFC 224, Mackenzie Dern scored a first-round submission victory over Amanda Bobby Cooper. This saw UFC fighters who’ve missed weight and still competed go 6-0 in 2018.
Yoel Romero secured a middleweight title shot against Robert Whitakker in UFC 225’s headliner with his knockout of Luke Rockhold. ‘The Soldier of God’ came in 2.7 lbs over the limit for what was supposed to be an interim title fight. Kevin Lee rebounded from his loss to Tony Ferguson by knocking out Edson Barboza. The victory kept him at the business end of the most stacked division. He missed weight by a pound.
Mads Burnell (four pounds over) beat Mike Santiago. Michel Prazeres (five pounds over) defeated Desmond Green. Alex Perez (half a pound over) scored a unanimous decision win over Eric Shelton. All these fighters had to forfeit a percentage of their purses to their opponents and there was some reputational damage incurred (some more than others). However, as Dominick Cruz will tell you, ‘wins matter more than anything’.
It's happening! https://t.co/tffV1FD7wz
— SportsJOE (@SportsJOEdotie) May 17, 2018
It pays to cheat
Dern has two wins in the UFC. Her first was a gruelling split decision against Ashley Yoder who is 0-3 inside the Octagon. She was seven pounds over the limit for her sophomore bout which came against a 3-3 Cooper. She was so heavy when she arrived in Brazil, the commission wanted to pull the plug on the fight. Cooper and Yoder weren’t ranked when they lost to Dern.
Despite this, she entered into the UFC women’s strawweight rankings at 15 in the new update. Angela Hill, who Dern replaced in the rankings was understandably upset about the situation. Although she’s 2-2 in her return stint in the UFC, she has a unanimous decision win over Yoder and defeated Maryna Moroz who was ranked 14th at the time of the fight. Her only losses as a professional have come against current champion Rose Namajunas and Tecia Torres, Jessica Andrade and Nina Ansaroff, all of whom are ranked.
Oh yeah, and not one of those fights was a catchweight contest.
Well this is a big fat slap in the face. I’ve fought top competition, beat #14 and the rankings finally grace me with #15 ranking, just to get bumped by a fucking Flyweight. pic.twitter.com/ZYlP5Ogs6w
— Angela Hill (@AngieOverkill) May 17, 2018
Another strawweight who is unhappy about the rankings is veteran Felice Herrig. ‘Lil Bulldog’ posted an in-depth breakdown of her gripes with the list on Instagram. Her first issue, you’ve guessed it, was the placement of Dern.
https://www.instagram.com/p/Bi5XhCfHlgZ/?utm_source=ig_embed
