Dern Won’t Be Doing Much Striking At UFC 224

Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) strawweight phenom, Mackenzie Dern, will make her second Octagon appearance at the upcoming UFC 224 pay-per-view (PPV) event on Sat., May 12, 2018 in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.

While her UFC debut resulted in a victory over Ashley Yoder, courtesy of the UFC 222 extravaganza earlier this month is Las Vegas, Nevada, her performance was underwhelming, at least in terms of living up to her considerable hype.

That’s because the undefeated Dern (6-0)is known as one of the most talented female grapplers in the sport, which is why she won’t be bothering with much stand up when she faces Amanda Cooper.

From her conversation with Submission Radio:

“I know she has two losses by submission. So, I definitely know the girls she fought before, submission-wise, weren’t as good as I am on the ground, so I think this fight is gonna end up in submission. And my goal in this fight is not to be too much staying standing up (laughs). I don’t wanna stay too much standing up, I want to get the submission for Brazil, show like the real Brazilian Jiu Jitsu. So I’m gonna say submission.”

Hopefully she’s going to say it in both languages.

Looking to play spoiler is strawweight veteran Amanda Cooper (3-3), who sent Angela Magana to the unemployment line after the curtain fell at UFC 218 last December. “ABC” is now 2-2 inside the Octagon after cutting her teeth on The Ultimate Fighter (TUF) 23.

UFC 224 will be headlined by the women’s bantamweight title fight pitting reigning 135-pound queenpin Amanda Nunes opposite rough-and-tumble contender Raquel Pennington. Elsewhere on the card, Vitor Belfort and Lyoto Machida will hook ‘em up for middleweight bragging rights.

See the latest UFC 224 fight card here.