Strawweight Mackenzie Dern took questions from the press at the official UFC Vegas 73 media day ahead of her main event …
well kids I know it wasn’t originally expected to be a main event but it is a main event does it feel like a big moment or a big opportunity to be in the headliner again yeah a big opportunity um I’m owing to my main events here at the Apex so um when they gave me another opportunity I was like okay let’s do it um I wanted like the crowd I was excited to be in North Carolina Charlotte the crowd um so I have like a little bit trauma I guess you could say here but I wanted to break that too at the same time so back here I’ve had good moments at Apex too so I’m not complaining and it’s media it’s you know another poster you know to have at home so it’s a great opportunity and I’m oh it’s one week later too so it’s not so bad yeah I guess the fact that you’re owing two and Main Events I mean is there any link there at all I mean look you’re fighting at the highest level you’re gonna have setbacks or whatever but they both happen to me it’s just coincidence or is there anything you take out of those that you think I wasn’t approaching that right um I mean I don’t think as like a strategy wise but I think the type of Fighters that I was given for my main events Marina and young I think they were both really experienced um Fighters with good movement you know and for me now going into this fight and with my loss I have a vision that’s better as in like okay I don’t need to submit every single round like this pressure and just this anxiety and not anxiety but like excitement you know I need to submit I need submit you know if I didn’t finish the first round then the second round if I didn’t finish it and then you could kind of see the emotion and the frustration getting in and I’m like okay these girls they know how to win by like points you know they know how to use the rule book which is part of the game you know not that it’s bad but um you know the judges I feel like with young China and I feel like I could have won that fight you know like I feel I did so much on the ground but it wasn’t enough to get like a 10 a and now I understand like hey if I’m on the cage you know the cage is like the ground but uh you know so instead of getting to the cage and take it down like ground and like not ground upon but elbows knees make them you know wind around you know don’t force myself to you know fall on bottom or something so a little bit like tactical things that I think this fight it’s really gonna show and um but not necessarily because of five rounds or three rounds I think just with the opponents they brought that out of me and I think I felt I was confident I was more confident with submitting young Shannon and Marina than I was about Angela you know what I mean I think Angela is a little bit harder to submit she’s Scrappy you know and things like that and they I was so I was so confident to submit them and I wanted to submit them that it was a little bit like too excited you know instead of more stress patience and calm and precision you talk about like the tactic change and the mindset change like have you been able to work on that like in sparring like has that been the primary focus or is it like I hope I do it on Saturday yeah no it’s I’ve been working on that this whole Camp it’s been so crazy like my divorce has been crazy like everything coach Perler he was out of town for a month with Luke for his bare knuckle fight you know so it’s like basically this Camp was like tactic in having this vision of fighting that I’d never had before and I feel kind of like man I’m like 10 fights in the UFC and I just found that out now you know like to understand that I just need to win the round and if you do that each round you win the fight you know instead of me thinking like I would finish the round and out of one minute I’d spend maybe 20 seconds like did I win that round you know like at this level the top five top ten you can’t you can’t finish the round and not know if you won or not you know you need to be leaving the round and know like yeah I’m winning here I’m losing here okay what I needed to to steal the round okay what are the judges seeing you know and that’s kind of the tack that I was able to train on this Camp since it was so crazy was more like understanding the MMA game and that we do use the judges and we do like steal things you know you steal around and do this and have that instead of me going for submission and falling on bottom and maybe they still around at the end you know uh in talking about the matchup it sounds like you have a lot of respect for Angela as an opponent was that safe to say yeah for sure I mean she has more than 30 fights I think so it’s like and I don’t I’m not 100 sure but I think she was like in the house The Ultimate Fighter house with the OG Girls of the division I think she was like later cut and then I think she came back in and now she’s worked all the way up here so I definitely think with everything she’s gone through um I’m finding the best version of Angela right now you know so I’m happy about that because you know the better the better the opponent the higher the fight is you know the better you you get pushed but uh yeah I mean she has experience I think she a lot of her fights are like by decision or her wins or her losses so she’s not a girl that I want to mess up my tactic which is why I lost my two main event in my mind you know how I see it she’s definitely someone that I don’t want to let her get ahead I don’t want her to get her Rhythm because I see her kind of start to flow when she gets a rhythm and she’s Scrappy you know she doesn’t she doesn’t give up you know she doesn’t she’s not easy to submit or knock out um so that’s why I have like this respect for her you know but and also too like I said when I was confident I was going to submit I didn’t submit I did everything but the submission you know um so now definitely for this fight I’m I’m kind of I’m coming with a lot of aggression you know from my personal life and everything so nothing personal against Angela but I know I have a lot of respect for her but I need it I need to get it done you’re technically the the higher ranked fighter obviously you know she’s a veteran but are you thinking about races before you had the setbacks we were talking about title shots and where are you thinking about that stuff at all or have you found maybe it’s better it’s not thinking about that stuff no for sure I’m thinking about it you know I’m I just turned 30. I’m feeling like I’m getting to my best like physically mentally experienced maturity level right now like 30 31 so I’m the the the the the the path to the belt is like trying I’m trying to make it as clear as possible you know I don’t wanna I don’t want anything I feel like so many things are trying to like kind of bring me down I change managers it’s like the divorce the you know the gym there’s so much stuff going on that I don’t want something to take me off of my course um but to stay on course I need to have a plan you know and so it’s not like I’m looking past Angela but I do want to know okay if I lose who would be if I win who would be this and especially with like Vienna who beat Marina and Marina be mean I’d be Vienna and then young be you know it’s just so much stuff happened the vision um I see myself on there you know and I know I feel more confident like yeah I’m supposed to be there you know I just need to get back on the winning streak but I mean I don’t know Rose or even a second with young Shannon or I know color is pregnant but so that’s great but um yeah definitely planning like the next steps to the belt last thing for me I’m sure ideally even though you’re not pushing the submission you get a submission but it sounds like you’re prepared to go all five rounds so I guess what do you what do you anticipate I mean do you think this is going to end up being a five-round battle I don’t think it’ll be five rounds I don’t think it’ll be the first round but um I think we’ll be within like three three rounds as a submission yeah hey Mackenzie hi um how was it fighting in front of Mark Zuckerberg last night out yeah it was cool it was cool but it that see that was like more crazy to me than this like changing one week later to Main Event you know that was like okay main event I trained so hard for this fight you know and then Tuesday they called me like Tuesday I’m already driving out my family’s coming oh it’s closed you know and I’m like you know and I’m like shoot like the Apex is already like quiet you know but then it’s even more quiet you know where you can just kind of hear things so um that was a little bit and then the whole medium thing media I think I said something I wasn’t supposed to say I wasn’t sure and I was like getting calls so that was a little bit like crazy for me during the fight week but it was fun it was it was a great opportunity I got to meet him and his wife and um yeah it’s good I saw her that he just competed too so it’s really cool to see him as a supporter of the sport I think you said in an interview a few months but like you want to return to your like your finishing Resort you just want to go in there and finish finish your goals like what is that just because like that’s what you’re known for or is it just kind of like a mindset where you’re just like you know I am I’m so good on the ground like why not why am I not using that yeah but both both in my Jiu Jitsu career I was very like um forward Pace you know always going for some missions and that was just kind of like how it was known in Jiu Jitsu um I always think like it’s better to be attacking and I’m defending than them getting them to defend me so that’s just myself but also too I mean like I said I like I want to be the champion that’s my goal number one goal but I don’t want to be just like a champion that people are going to forget about you know in a couple years or something like that you know I want to be remembered so that’s like I need to have the most submissions like Charlize the Bronx and have some break some records then that’s what I want if that’s the way I do it by submissions which I think I have all the capability of doing then that’s what I’m that’s what I want to do and also too I think it’s just when you go out with that mentality to submission it’s like the amount of girls that have that defense or that they get nervous with that you know it helps so much you know to know that these Strikers like I know I’m gonna find one Striker that’s not going to be scared and they’re gonna like come at me but when you have that presence and you know that they’re not letting they’re not letting go 100 on you while they’re striking because they’re nervous of your of your of the ground um I need to take advantage of that you know and that’s I don’t want to lose that you know I want to keep like hey if I take it to the ground I will go for it it’s just it almost kind of gives me an overconfidence that okay I’ll submit and then like Marina and Jan I’m doing like switching from omaplada to the katak academy to the arm bar to the you know I’m doing all these submissions and I they defend like not even defend they kind of resist one and then I’m like okay I’ll get the next one and then I’ll send the round stops and we step back up again and I didn’t get anything and it I wasn’t able to get like a 10-8 round because it’s not really impactful you know no one knows how deep Doma plot is only I know you know what I mean so it’s kind of like just that mentality like okay whatever submission I go for go for it and if they don’t give it to me like brown and pound you know until they give it to me you know make them want to give it to me um instead of forcing it and being like overconfident like okay well get on the next one and the next one and then the time’s over and then I have to go through everything again sure well thank you for that um and finally uh the next trial weight title fight was announced yesterday Whaley John’s gonna fight I met a la motion I just wanted your thoughts on that matchup yeah I think Amanda lemus is going to win you know she’s she’s tough um yeah she’s strong she’s a good like counter puncher um I think she’s gonna get get the win and I think she’s I think she has ground game too so I think she’ll get it but it’ll be a good fight I’m excited thank you yeah McKenzie thanks for taking the time just uh Curious when you I don’t think you’ve said no to anybody but when you got that call the details about okay it’s gonna be uh we’re gonna go from three to five it’s going to be your main event you had touched on you know like how Main Events having come I’ve come up short do you see this as like perfect I want that Redemption this is exactly what I wanted to write the wrongs now I do now I do now that I’m here you know seeing all you guys and there’s nowhere to run you know I’m like yeah okay this is the time now I got this you know but as soon as they were telling me the offer like my heart was kind of like you know the trauma you know everything has like Superstition and all these things and with everything going around um because my Camp was so crazy you know I was like man I really wanted since I did lose two I wanted my next main event to be with a well-trained camp so I don’t lose but I mean I think that everything happens for a reason and you know I think this is the opportunity and I wasn’t gonna say no to it you know because then I’m just kind of running away from my fears you know like fears as in I mean I know if I lose what it’s not going to be like the end of the world you know but I want to win you know and I don’t want to not win because oh my Camp was this or Camp was that or because my mind was I was nervous you know I want to win like independent of all that and no because I’m I’m I I have the ability to win you know independent of everything that’s going on so definitely I was like a little bit anxious and like I don’t know if I should do it I could I should stay the crowd I was kind of hoping my next Main Event would be in front of a crowd you know um not back at the Apex but if this was if this is opportunity give it to me I think there’s a reason for it for me to like go and break it you know that was great yeah and lastly for me with everything going around I’m assuming that once you make that walk then you’ll be like okay I’ve been here many times all the chaos outside of my life like this is what I know and what I was born to do yep yeah that’s exactly that’s exactly what got me like to say like okay let’s do it you know because I was looking so forward even even me fighting in Charlotte I mean it was almost kind of like I don’t know like an escape for me a little bit in a way to get away from everything like okay it’s just three rounds you know I’m gonna kind of just I even kind of disappeared from my social media for a little bit um because of everything and I was kind of just get back in the win streak you know there won’t be that much media you know there’s lots of good fighters on there so get my win and then get everything organized so it’s even even like that it was kind of like I was doing like having an escape for what everything that was going on with me and this is just like I have to face it head on and being in the fight I’m looking so forward to being like 25 minutes just doing what I love to do you know and cut you know like adversity you know that’s what I would need you know I don’t want it to be easy for me you know so in a way I was kind of like trying to hide from it you know but um the best way is just to face it on and that’s what I’m looking for like you said like to be in there 25 minutes I’m not worrying about MOA I’m not worried about whatever’s going on in my personal life I’m just worried about hitting Angela Hill and being here nothing personal though excellent sounds great and good luck on Saturday thank you