Following UFC Vegas 73, tune in to the Post-Fight Press Conference to hear the athletes take questions from the media.
what would you think of your performance overall have you been able to watch it at all yet no I haven’t but uh like I always say I’m gonna just start at five because we can go up and down from there you know what I mean that’s like the halfway number um I got hit so obviously I got to work on head movement my coach just told me that I was doing a couple mistakes when I was moving backwards so just back to the drawing boards you know what I mean um and we just come back and we try to re-perform but better next time did you did this go the way you pictured it did you think you’d be able to get in and out of there pretty quick or did you picture it being a three-round war um I knew it could be either way um it’s a fight you know what I mean you never know what to expect I just went in there ready to try to murder him for every single round so it doesn’t matter if he wants to stay in there for three or two I’m gonna try to break his soul no matter what besides getting hit was there any surprises in there no not not like my coaches they man I have the best team in the world I truly believe that when I say that like my coaches do so much homework like uh I do my homework watch a little bit I’m like all right cool and then the rest is just do what I do and make sure I’m sharp and whatever my coaches tell me to do I do were you able to stick to your game plan or did you have to kind of change it up at all in there I I think we stuck to it I mean we had to adjust on the Fly you know what I mean it’s fighting but we adjusted and we got to finish so I think we did everything we could tonight what did you think of Edmond as a opponent I don’t know I don’t even know how to answer that uh he’s cool I guess was he uh as difficult as you thought he was would be or was he as easy as you thought he would be uh I don’t know I every fight I just feel like is going to be a hard one you know I mean when you get to this level everybody’s good everybody knows all the basics everyone is really good here so I mean it was tough just like everyone else in this division but I feel like I’m tougher and I’m going to come show that every time and what’s next for you do you have an opponent in mind or a location you’d like to fight next I honestly barely follow the UFC whoever the is in that top 15 I will fight so Uncle Dana whoever you want to see me fight sign me up and I’ll be there so what’s the reason for not following because I I hear some Fighters say that and I feel like they they just don’t want to get too involved in everything what’s your reason honestly like I’ve said since I was a kid um I’m not here to be a fanboy I’m here to be the next biggest thing in the world so I believed in myself and I’m just gonna keep focusing on myself I don’t care what everyone else is doing when the time comes then I have to face them I will break their soul thank you fluffy um dude you have a legendary gas tank tell me like what what do you do um I jerk off with a snorkel no um I train at game fit man uh some of the best conditioning in the world um this guy tries to murder me every day um and like there’s times where I feel like uh like I’m not in my body and like I throw up and I push myself every day in every single class um so there’s no reason to doubt myself you know what I mean I’m a Workhorse and that’s this is all I do I live this every day so if you’ve ever felt tired in a fight always but I mean you know what I mean it it’s never comfortable it’s there’s no such thing as comfort like we go we kill ourselves to make weight like this whole thing is it’s miserable so what’s one more misery you know what I mean I’ve been through hell plenty of times what’s one more going through hell you know what I mean congrats thank you sir just one for me going into that third what did your corner say to you were there any sort of Corrections you had to make going into that third or was there any openings that you guys saw in those first two rounds that you immediately kind of corrected for off the top of my head I can’t think of it but they were telling me to um to be not cute because my dumb ass threw a peace sign out there um but they were telling me to follow up with shots and wrestle um and then uh what was what else is it oh yeah yeah stay disciplined that’s what it is it’s always about being disciplined you know I mean you don’t want to give them a chance um to catch you because then it’s a bad night in the office congrats on the victory thank you sir I appreciate it foreign thank you foreign foreign game is coming in shortly [Music] Market s are yes all right guys uh the fight of the night was Dern versus Hill uh performance of the night went to Slava and Diego they all won fifty thousand dollars who’s got the first question that’ll be me today I know John Morgan I just gotta know what you thought of that main event because it was so badass I’m so glad that that’s the fight we moved to the main event here tonight um let me start with first of all Mackenzie Dern looked unbelievable tonight so aggressive Amina I don’t know what you guys thought but I thought this was going to be one of those fights where Angela Hill came out stand up trying to take it to her and Mackenzie was going to do everything in her power to get to the ground try and submit her and uh to see MacKenzie’s stand-up you know the punches the knees actually hurting Angela Hill who’s tough as Nails then on the flip side Angela Hill who’s so tough and durable you know getting into these positions you know arm barred twice stayed out of it gets hit with that big knee gets taken down and still has you know the wherewithal to stay out of submissions and it was a badass fight it was as good of a main event as you could ever hope for yeah it was incredible for everyone’s watching this thing right now if you didn’t see the fight today you should go to ESPN clutch and watch the main event um the whole car is great but the main event is pretty badass there were also two fighters making their debuts in different weight divisions tonight that performed really well Chase Hooper and Joaquin Buckley I’m just curious if what you thought of those performances as well yeah you know obviously uh uh Hooper you know always fun and uh you know the back and forth with the submission game was awesome great win for him and then you know Buckley uh beautiful head kick knockout I mean it was a good card Great Performances and uh yeah loopy asked for a fight on September 16th I don’t know if there’s one scheduled yet do you know if there’s going to be a fight I don’t either that makes two of us um somebody else said they wanted to fight again and was it was it just loopy or somebody else said September 2 that they wanted to fight maybe it was just just loopy but I don’t remember but I don’t know off the top of my head right here right now I don’t know and I know I asked you last week if there was any update on Connor and Michael Chandler um he Connor has said that there will be announcement for the fight during the Airing of tough is that correct that’s correct so there’s a fight signed there’s a fight okay well he has to get into the usata pool first he’s filling out the paperwork I don’t know how soon that’ll be done or what’s going on but that’s that’s his business that he’s handling with usada and uh but it’s all in motion can we expect that this year the fight yeah yeah I mean that’s that’s what we’re shooting for I mean uh we uh yeah hopefully you know we have a big fight in Madison Square Garden in November and then a big fight in December you also announced the BMF title is going to be on the line again curious what the decision was to to bring that back yeah you know War Room every Tuesday we’ll run there and uh you know as we were putting that card together for Utah we thought that Poirier and gaichi is such a awesome fight mazovid all retired so we put the BMF up you have no idea how many of these Fighters want to fight for the BMF title they all they all want to fight for that belt so it’s fun it’s different so we’ll do it again could we potentially see that belt come around a little more often now is that something that maybe we all need to defend yeah I don’t know I mean uh when you think about coming up with it the first time those are the two right guys and so are these these are the two right guys for that too and um you know whether that thing’s in play or not in play that fight is what it is but everybody wants that belt so what the hell has maswood all talked to you at all about that is he gives his Blessing or commented at all no no we I haven’t talked to mass but all about it and um we also got to ask about franciscano going to pfl I’m just curious about your thoughts on that deal um you know based on what I know about the deal which is not much um it makes no sense to me I mean you’re gonna pay a guy not to fight for a year and it’s already been like 18 months he’s fought three times in the last three years it’s just not what we do here it’s just it’s not it’s not what we do and the day that we released them I knew exactly what was going to happen and uh Francis wants to take zero risks doesn’t want to take any chances um and he obviously didn’t want to take a chance against Jon Jones and after we saw what happened with Cyril gone you know I don’t blame him I think the outcome would have been exactly the same and I’m sure most of you do and I’m sure Francis does too um you know and the media makes it sound like that I’m saying that he’s afraid of him I don’t think that he’s afraid of anybody it’s just the fact that he doesn’t want to take any risk he wants to you know pfl is going to pay this guy to train for a boxing match that may not even happen and that they might not even be involved in how does that make any sense it it doesn’t make sense to me I mean Anthony Joshua called it a gimmick fight this week you know he when asked about that fight he’s like I’m focused on fighting the best guys in the world you know I’m not interested in the gimmick fight right now and that’s one of the big problems with boxing right now is it’s it’s all about these gimmicky type fights and that’s just not what I do here it’s not what I do I I put on fights with the best fighters in the world and and and fights that people want to see Francis could have done a deal here Hunter threw the kitchen sink at that guy you know Hunter went to more dinners with Francis and ganyu and and did everything in his power to try to get this fight done and you know Francis just thinks like that he’s in a position where he’s got some Conor McGregor Mayweather fight on his hands which he does not that that fight was like a once in a lifetime type deal fight that I wasn’t very interested in um and uh but but at the end of the day it became so big the right guys the right time the right place the fans wanted it so so we did it and we got it done um MMA guys versus boxers doesn’t make any sense to me um but I know that he thinks there’s there’s all this money in it I disagree I I don’t think there is and and I have no beef with the pfl I mean these guys have always been um super professional and um you know never talked any smack you know me if I don’t like you whether it’s De La Hoya or another uh you know uh organization out there whatever it is you know I I don’t hold back I’ll let you have it but um you know what they’re doing makes no sense to me their business strategy I’m hearing that they’re uh raising money right now you know 280 million 300 million I don’t know what the number is from the Middle East and I’ve done a lot of business in the Middle East those guys are sharp and they know I don’t know who in the hell would give them 280 million dollars because I’m here and they’re buying Bellator right so you’re an organization that’s burning cash have no ratings in selling no tickets and you’re going to raise 280 million to buy a company that’s burning cash sells no tickets it does no ratings it sounds absolutely genius to me um and I don’t know uh I know how the story ends I I I get what Francis is doing I wish the pfl all the luck in the world I wish him all the luck in the world it’s just not what we do here um you know right now when you think about it he’s going to this company I don’t know what they’re paying him or what’s going on or any of that stuff he’s not even fighting their champions you know what I mean he wants the box he signs with this company and he’s not even willing to fight their Champions right now he’s fought three times in the last three years and he’s it’s been like 18 months since he’s fought and from what I’m hearing he’s not going to fight for another year all the stuff that’s being talked about it’s all by the media the media is creating all this it’s it’s just it’s like I had to hit listen to this Robin black who looks like he came out of a 1997 time warp talking if anybody needs a makeover somebody please help that dude get him what’s that show on TV major makeover whatever the it is somebody signed Robin black up for that thing this guy’s out there talking all this about um you know oh we’re just all about marketing not the best fighters in the world and all this really stupid so a lot of this stuff’s just coming from the media um but when you think about Francis Francis you know their last champion or maybe it was his current champion lost to tibera right and then the champion now I think lost to Yuri prohaska in the first round who isn’t even heavyweight Francis doesn’t want to fight these two guys now am I the only one that that this whole thing is just a bunch of so that’s my two cents uh my last question hopefully a fun one uh McGregor’s documentary came out this week I’m just curious when can we expect your Netflix documentary never never I’m not into that kind of stuff I’ve been believe me I get offers for all kinds of books and this and that I’m I’m just I’m not interested in that type of stuff at all movie roles none of that this is what I do this is what I like to do I’ll literally never do any of that stuff but something he gave him a bonus so I think we could tell you like his performance but Diego for head uh coming in on the three fight skin then doing what he did to Michael Johnson what can you think about what do you think about his performance and just how good he looked tonight yeah I agree that’s what we were talking about tonight you know Michael Johnson is one of these guys that’s I I think he’s been finished three times or less in his entire career and uh yeah what a hell of a performance tonight by him um yeah impressive another guy that didn’t get a bonus that had a pretty good performance Joaquin Buckley what do you think about that performance and uh was he possibly close from the running for getting a bonus yeah he definitely was and uh and I’ll take care of Buckley I’ll give him something else too but you know I I think that when you look at Dern and Hill obviously you know the fight of the night and then uh have you ever seen a cleaner combination than Slava through how it landed and and it literally the fight should have been over right there he shouldn’t even had the opportunity to jump on that guy and hit him again um and then obviously we were just talking about Diego so I think the bonuses were dead on tonight and uh but I’ll take care of Buckley derna and the post fight it called out and she called out Jan and said Rose but there’s a matchup with rose is that a fight that you would like to see and uh who did Dern Dern um I don’t know I don’t know right now but obviously yeah it’s a fun fight too um you know I think MacKenzie’s in a in a really good position after tonight’s performance and uh I mean she’s never looked meaner than she looked tonight I mean she came out on a mission man she looked like she was in great shape she fought hard for five rounds um her stand up you know was on point she heard Angela Hill several times with her stand up and uh was all over her on the ground so I I other than pulling off a knockout or or a sub she couldn’t have had a better performance than tonight so I think anything is possible for her just a few on the outside uh Jim Brown recently passed away you know and he was a big help to the organization when it first got it started I don’t know if you had thoughts on his passing on maybe what he meant to the organization at its start well you know obviously he wasn’t around during during my era but you know he’s a guy who helped launch the UFC and and uh you know we we paid respect to him tonight not only on on the broadcast but you know all over social media too and uh but the guy lived a great life man I think he was 87 when he passed and and uh you know he obviously has some history here at the UFC so yeah we we showed him the love and respect tonight awesome um talking about aljo and O’Malley it looks like the Vite had been verbally agreed upon but then we see aljo go on in uh social media saying like well if my body feels good I’ll be I guess I’ll be ready or something and then you have a Mali saying well regardless I’ll be there and I’ll be fighting for a title no you’re fighting it’s it’s I do you want me to explain what’s going on in the mind of all Joe I it’s it’s I was in the gym this morning working out I got I got a call that all Joe said you know I got a call from three guesses who called me today and said uh aljo sounds like he doesn’t really want to fight three guesses 100 bucks right now for whoever can guess it who oh man of his word Henry suhuto calls me and says this little doesn’t want to fight I’ll take the fight I’m I’m throwing my hat and right now let’s do it I’ll I’ll fight on Maui so Hunter is my neighbor comes over to my house said what’s going on you know and and I think you know we got his manager on the phone stuff like that it’s just all Joe’s one of those guys who just can’t get out of his own way you know apparently he’s in for the fight why he said that who knows it’s just yeah but this is my life brother this is my life but if that fight the fight is on okay I don’t wanna the fight is absolutely positively on awesome Yes um another fight that you know people you know seem to be sort of setting itself out on social media and going back and forth I know I read somewhere I thought you said like uzman said something about catch weight and you’re like no way a catch weighted would have to be at middleweights right what are your thoughts on this is that a fight I think the possibility it’s a fight that Usman wants that that’s no secret uzman literally came to the office to lobby for that fight um I told him I love him uzman is one of the best guys we’ve ever worked with I love working with a guy you know look at all the things he’s accomplished I don’t do catch weights don’t do it um you know so you you know how hamzat is if you talk the homs out hamzat’s gonna do whatever go right at it with you and doesn’t care who he fights and all that stuff so um I don’t know we obviously we have we’ve been making a lot of announcements lately we haven’t made that announcement yet because we don’t have a fight done yet but we’re working on stuff for Hamza gotcha and last one for me uh Alexa Grasso we have any sort of update on when we might see her in again and it seemed like the rematch with Valentina was what was going to happen but is there any any talk of what’s going on with her yeah we’re working on that too that’s that’s one of the fights that we’re definitely working on right now thanks Dana thank you Dana yep um I just wanted your thoughts on Carolina um you know she was on a five fight losing this kid comes back she’s won three in a row researching like what do you say to a fighter like that no I I agree with you um she looked great tonight couple things that I was watching when she when she was fighting if you noticed in the beginning um her opponent came out and started throwing body kicks she caught the body kicks and was drilling her with right hands and uh I I was fascinated by that because she didn’t throw another kick again until the third round so I asked her after the fight did you guys watch tape on her and and they started laughing and said yeah we saw that she always likes to throw that right body kick we were catching we practiced the whole Camp catching them and drilling her with right hands and and it worked she stayed on the outside she picked her apart I mean she looked damn good tonight I literally talked her off the fight and said that’s the best I’ve seen you look in a long time congratulations so yes I agree with you and and uh yeah I let her know that she had a great performance and like is she just like a perfect case where like you see these flyers go on skids right and they’re like oh she’s done she’s gonna retire and then maybe change the camp change her mindset and then come back and that’s a great question uh did she come back here tonight no yeah what did you ask her that you’re asking me yeah uh I want to know now too uh uh I agree with you yeah I don’t know but but that would make sense either that or you know some nights just aren’t your night and some nights are you know uh everything just sort of comes together you know you have a great Camp your your team breaks down your opponent and everything just goes the right way I don’t know the answer to that question but I would love to know the answer to that too um yeah I agree with you there’s another uh female fighter on the second fight the prelims Natalia Silva her last two fights and she’s been finishing girls I mean is is you know with the flyweight division wanting prospects like it’s if she wanted to look out for so I’m on a we’re on group chat me the matchmakers and Hunter and I was driving over here and I missed that fight and these guys were all going crazy about that fight I missed it I’d love I would love to talk to you about that fight but I missed that fight tonight but these guys were all in the in the group chat going crazy over that fight I um I missed it um something outside of the tonight uh I just wanted to know the mindset like so Sean Strickland and Paula Costa two top seven middleweights they’re fighting their next fights are gonna be too unranked Fighters that only have one fight in the organization I just wanted to know is it more of a you want uh new Jews in that division or is it like like what’s what’s the what’s yeah that’s that that is uh what we try to do is obviously when you have a division coach hasn’t fought in a long time you know what I mean Strickland’s been fighting a lot so yes the answer is yes we’d like to bring guys in and see where they’re at and see how they um you know obviously the dude that Paula Costa is fighting is toughest now you don’t know how good some guys are until you get them in there into the top 15. um and you think we’re in the matchmaking room we think some guys are ready for that step and some guys we don’t know so they might fight 15-14 whatever and a lot of times if if guys listen what what is said in public it’s never what really goes on behind the scenes you know and it’s not my job to come out and try to make guys look bad um but you know both of these guys are fighting tough guys that are you know that aren’t ranked it’s like tonight I’ll give it another perfect example Mackenzie Dern who I think is ranked number eight in the world is taking on number 14 Angela Hill who has like a uh like a 15 and 13 record right dangerous fight for her dangerous fight Angela Hill is 15 and 13 because those 13 fights that she lost were exactly like tonight and she fought like all the baddest women in the world um but for Mackenzie to take that risk I mean that’s what this is all about that’s really what goes on here we we challenge people and and you know number eight doesn’t always fight number six or number five it’s just not the way it works I hope I explained that right kinda so UFC 293 Sydney are you saying you wanted to see Costa versus Strickland I mean it makes makes kind of sense it makes no sense it does I mean both of them coming off wins uh both of them they they wanted to fight each other I don’t know it just kind of makes more sense than than both fighting unranked Fighters but I’m not a Matchmaker well let’s see what happens that night when the fights happen very true uh UFC 293 is in Sydney I’m guessing you’re hoping Israel lasagna headlines that card but with Robert Enriquez fighting two months prior at International fight week is that are you kind of it’s going to be a quick turnaround for the winner of that fight are you kind of thinking about that or we’ll make that announcement soon fine finally um just the 30th anniversary cards coming up you got something cool cool plan for that nah not really we’re just going to throw some on that card yes we we we will bring it for UFC 30. um you know I I mean if you look at this year I mean we’re putting on some badass fights this year and as good as the year opens up and as good as the summer is you know that once we get into the fall you know it just gets better and better and better and every year we go how the hell are we going to beat last year and we end up doing it I mean I think I think people were shocked when we announced the Utah card and how really good the Utah card is there were memes like there’s Utah pictures of Dana or some like that um that’s how good the Utah card is thank you thank you what’s up buddy hi how you doing good Al gel his next opponent stuff obviously uh O’Malley but he’s been heard saying that he’s interested in moving up in weight uh another division aljo has he ever said anything to you guys about that changing divisions all Joe all Joe’s up this whole press conference tonight um no I don’t think so I don’t know what all Joe’s doing all Joe will be in Boston versus O’Malley that’s happening great and then uh uh grimbo uh he defeated Sato for his first win for the first fight of the night tonight he came back here uh talking about how he came over here broke sleeping on the couch had seven dollars in his bank account when you hear stories like this of what the fighters go through uh and how they laid out on all the line uh I mean it kind of shows out what a great sport this is yeah it’s it’s it’s one of the things that I love you know not just this sport but one of the things that I love about Combat Sports in general you know what I mean most of the people that that uh compete in Combat Sports in general come from tough upbringings come from tough backgrounds um face a lot of adversity before they ever make it um and and they have the opportunity to to change their families lives and and and do these great things subject you guys love talking about powerslap live free on Rumble this Wednesday night um it’s the same thing with these guys now this thing didn’t exist three months ago it did but very very different than what it is now and the money that’s that’s in the sport for these guys is life-changing money for these guys it’s it’s um you know it’s kind of it’s what’s fun for me is it’s almost like what you were just saying about you know the kid that fought tonight and the first fight telling you know his story of adversity to get here and change his life I mean that’s exactly what’s going on there with these guys and and uh we’re lucky that we’ve been as successful as we were and and such a short amount of time there’s real money in this thing now and and it literally think about you know Garcia and tank Davis another fight that when you talk about putting on fights that people want to see and that fans are interested in I don’t even think the promoters realized what they had with that fight because I think they were all shocked by the gate and they were all shocked by the pay-per-view um but really when you step back and look at it after after the thing plays out there’s nothing shocking about it Garcia this good looking kid you know who who basically was built on the internet right you know that all these great videos of him how fast he was and all this stuff and tank Davis who’s a bad little right and when you get these guys going head Garcia won that fight he’d be the new De La Hoya I mean he would be the new De La Hoya um but my point that this whole thing is those are the type of fights that people want to see those are the kind of guys that people want to see in fights and those are the kind of fights that will sell there’s so much gimmicky going on right now that when a fight like that pops up and catches the imagination of fight fans it blows up and it’s just it’s one of the many things that I love about being in this sport uh talking about the power slap uh what’s what’s the difference going to be between the first season and the second season so so the first season um was done here in the United States and you know how this country is you know right now you can’t get anybody in the country from anywhere this stuff originated in Poland and Russia so I’m doing the second season in Abu Dhabi and we will get the baddest dudes from all over the world this thing is big in Russia it’s big in Poland it’s big in uh South Africa uh it took off in India and uh Australia so we’ll bring in like like the ba the best dudes in the world for slapping and and Abu Dhabi then we’ll have the finale then the winners of that finale will fight these guys uh you know that’ll all be slapping uh on Wednesday will there be a difference in uh a bump up of pay or the way it’s filmed there’s already a bump up yeah yeah that’s already changed so you know uh the first season I I I told you guys me and the fertitas funded the first season and uh we’re good now so yeah we’re we’re in a really good spot and yeah everything’s gonna change over the next couple years for this thing yeah good a quick one Dana just uh yeah for me let me Circle real quick back to the boxing uh did you hear what happened last weekend at the showtime with the barrosos and rolling stoppage with the controversy with Tony Weeks your opinion on that I I didn’t see it but I heard some stuff about that but I couldn’t you know I I’m not educated on it enough to speak about it I I I didn’t see it I just heard a little bit about it early stoppage by The Ref a little controversial or questionable so whenever you do we’ll talk about it okay with the boxing for example tonight we have that big pay-per-view across the street MGM did that boost up tonight’s fight night that was already trending did that kind of give it like a little uh more uh what are you talking about uh Javonte Davis and oh no with tonight with the oh tonight kind of like the lead-in was the fight night did that give you guys even more traffic more uh like a boost coming into that I don’t want to be a dick but I didn’t even know that fight was happening until yesterday seriously but maybe I don’t know this is what I truly believe I believe that on a night when you have multiple Combat Sports on that people are interested in seeing more people will stay home I tell you guys all the time my competition is whatever’s going on on Saturday night right it could be the new movie it could be you got to take your wife out to dinner it could be anything but when you have multiple things on television at night especially in Combat Sports because a lot of Combat Sports people don’t watch a lot of other sports so when you have multiple things on on the same night I can tell you this it definitely doesn’t hurt so whoever stayed home tonight and watched this fight night um you know this fight night probably leads right into I saw them advertising the out of it on the show tonight which probably leads right into the fight it definitely can’t hurt either one of us excellent and with the switch up in June how’s that training with Eden is stepping in for Juliana did that get more people talking about it more ticket sales in Canada well Canada was sold out anyway yeah Canada was sold out listen one thing we don’t have a problem doing is selling tickets so I mean this this last uh fight we did in North Carolina was the biggest uh American fight night ever in the history of of us putting on fight nights so um yeah ticket sales are not a problem excellent thank you sir thank you brother you guys done with me have a great weekend this is my makeup music the guys foreign foreign foreign well congratulations doesn’t seem like the the right you know word for what you just did it was an amazing performance how do you feel thank you so much um I feel great I’m a little sore but um I feel happy I tried really to stay focused and to keep a strategy but um I mean yeah this fight we got bonuses we got fight in the night bonus so it wouldn’t be possible without Angie an opportunity I thought that she was going to be kind of moving more so the fact that she went in for the fight stayed in the middle I mean that’s that’s what I like to do you know that’s how I train when I’m sparring you know it’s like the girls coming in the fight with me and my losses are usually with like people who move a lot you know so the fact that Angie was game and going in the middle and meeting me in the middle and going down for it I think I was able to really let loose and kind of show what I can do but I don’t know if the girls are going to be wanting to go and stay in the Middle with me anymore so maybe my next fight I’ll have to be chasing again more but I feel prepared for what comes after and I’m happy with the performance there’s things that I would like to to get better you know the cage work I didn’t want my back on the cage as much as it was but yeah happy with the performance was that what you expected I know you know going into it you always have kind of an idea of what you want to happen was that kind of how you you saw the fight going yeah I was I I thought I was gonna get the submission I really expected the submission but um that’s everything else as in cage um ground and pound I tried to really hit her more you know I wanted to be aggressive maybe get like uh stoppage because of hitting I wanted to get her to give excuse me to give me the the submission I think when I did get the submission was because she kind of gave it to me more because I was hitting her but I just wasn’t able to actually finish it so yeah I mean the game plan was basically that and we stayed we stayed true you know I was happy with a lot of some of my new my new things like knees and elbows that we’ve been working on so to be able to kind of everything I’ve been working on to come out on this fight especially with everything that’s been going on in my life I’m really really happy with it does it feel even better knowing that you’ve kind of broken that curse of this yeah the main events man the the oh and two I was owing to um here at the Apex so to get that Main Event in to be like five of the night I’m really happy about that and yeah I mean we can’t fall into the whole Superstition thing you know even though sometimes we we do this campus a lot of different things like I said before I gained I went up and wait a little bit muscle wise so we kind of went back to the dehydration that a lot of the fighters do like lose losing water weight and the last time I did that was at UFC in Rio in 2018 when I didn’t make weight you know so I kind of broke a lot of mental traumas that I had in my mind for this fight um it was last minute the main event so everything kind of happens for a reason you know you can’t you shouldn’t force it as much you know just kind of go with it and do the best you can and that’s what we did and everything worked out a lot of Fighters and fans were commenting on how how improved you were how great your performance was what do you credit that to what’s your what do you feel is the biggest Improvement that you made um I think the biggest Improvement was like getting this because like of everything that was going on you know I think when you’re sometimes you’re doing the same thing same thing and I wasn’t expecting to go through so much for this Camp um just with a lot of craziness so but because of that I kind of had to step back and find like a different way of getting my Camp through and just getting to this fight and because of that we kind of looked more of a strategic look at it and like okay what what’s what’s the thing that I’m missing you know like I’m I’m training hard I’m doing good with my striking I’m doing good with my grappling but like what am I missing you know um to get there it’s not something big but a little detail that experience comes with too um and we were kind of okay I didn’t really have too many training Partners it’s kind of like all over the place and we were more like strategic okay when I’m on the cage I can wind around like that you know win the round each round just win it you know and if you win each round then you win the fight and then the submissions The Knockouts all of that is consequence you know and these are things that I’ve been hearing for a couple years but like I said sometimes when everything’s all organized in your life you don’t notice these things you know and then when you have the craziness you you come to you realize things so I think that the biggest thing was just the whole chaos really brought out this focus of me wanting to win and what I need to do to win and then I realized okay the strategy and the focus to stay stick to that fight IQ um of course also too with my coaches you know I have um Anthony Gonzalez that I worked with with this Camp um Antonio chocolate Mavado he’s a fighter um he helped me too with this Vision you know as he fights now you know so uh my dad Wellington Diaz coach Jason Perillo just my team you know so my family my daughter they all really got me that Focus that I needed for this fight can you talk to me a little bit about having your daughter there cage side I know that they were talking about on the broadcast that she wouldn’t have been able to go to Charlotte so maybe changed a little bit having her here yeah for sure I mean that even like just going to the fight today um when they gave me the opportunity to come and do this fight I was like man everything going everything is going on um I just wanted to kind of go under the radar um three rounds you know Charlotte was a good card ABC card a lot of great fights so I was like I’ll just go in get my get my win um mobile will be we’ll be back in California so I’ll just focus get in get out get my life organized and then I was like man I’d want to be back and driving here this this morning this afternoon I was like you know I’m happy to be back here you know I’m happy to be in this environment I think it’s going to help me stick to a strategy you know I won’t get that emotion of the crowd that I was looking forward to but actually I realized like how I’m trying to be more strategic and more calm that the Apex and this whole event was going to be good for me so having my daughter there of course is always great I didn’t get to see here too much before the fight but yeah after we’re just talking about Disneyland all the time and that’s what I’ve been promising her is like I’m gonna win and we’re gonna go to Disneyland so I kept my promise and yeah it’s the biggest motivation thank you thank you hey Mackenzie I think that this was probably the most aggressive you’ve been or maybe in some time um what do you factor that into this was it like like you said on media day like you were trying to go to for a finishing and get her out of there like is that what it was yeah I mean I’ve I’ve I have I have aggression in me I sound like crazy when I say this you know but like I have a question we just ruined everything and when I say aggression I mean just so much stuff going on you know you need to really stress and all these things so um I’ve always have been forward a forward fighter you know um but really we’re just kind of always enforcing the submission forcing the takedown forcing forcing things and that’s what everyone’s expecting of me you know um so their defense is good um I was kind of getting not tired but I would get like frustrated I just it’s almost me against myself in the fight every time you know and I get frustrated with myself that I’m not getting this and our idea was to be aggressive and to make them prefer to get submitted than to keep getting grounded pound and keep getting beat up striking or underground or on the cage wherever it is you know so that was definitely the the plan and the goal um almost I got the submission but she was good defense too so all the credit to her too you were letting your hands go you dropped her I mean were you were you looking for The Knockout no I wasn’t looking for The Knockout you know but that’s I think what about what I’ve been told over and over again you know it’s not like when we look for it you know it’s like it comes consequent you know but since we were calmer on this fight I was seeing a lot more um I think everyone in my corner was um aligned you know everyone had the same expectation everyone was kind of on the same Focus so that’s that’s the best thing you can do when everyone’s on the same seeing the same things you know and finally I was able to see what all my Corners were seeing so everything just kind of worked out but I didn’t even really notice when I knocked her down you know for me then I was like yeah if you would have just kept hitting her it would have been knockout you know but I’m like what did I do he’s like you jumped on her and went to the ground you know so still I have that Jiu Jitsu you know Reflex on me you know but sooner or later it’s gonna a knockout’s gonna come too after you talked about your personal stuff on on Wednesday everyone ran with it everyone was talking about it I guess was it relieving to like let it like let that off your chest and then and then go in there and then let that aggression out yeah 100 I mean people see us you know like we’re superheroes you know and that all we do is fight and train all day you know maybe that world like I don’t know we’re mean you know Fighters are these you know but no it’s like we go through things all the time we’re regular people um we just fight for a living you know but um yeah it was really I mean I didn’t come here with intention you know to say like oh yeah all my problems that I’m going through but it was good for me to like just let it out there and for people to see like yeah we go through things like this and that meant divorced like child support all these things you know like managers and people wanting all these things from you it’s like since I’ve been into the MMA world you know I’ve always had like people just wanting to pull me in all these different directions and I’m learning the sport too you know I come from Jiu Jitsu I don’t come from MMA you know so I’m learning so much I don’t really I didn’t really have a path you know so now um to be able to let let everyone know you’re like yeah I’m going through this but I’m still here and I had a great performance I I think and yeah it didn’t stop me you know it’s like we can’t let people stop us from going after our dreams you’ve been calling for rose for a little bit it looks like she’s like training for 80cc or getting ready for something like that so I mean is is that the fight that like that you really want I know that you want a former Champion like that’s that’s something you want on your resume so it’s like are you are you open for that fight yeah for sure I mean I follow her on social media too and all this stuff so I saw her I think she did like a ADCC Regional or something like that so I mean I’m a former ADCC Champion so for me I’m always happy when I see the you know MMA girls and stuff doing Jiu Jitsu and things like that um so yeah definitely for sure to fight Rose’s uh priority of mine right now at this moment and I think would be a great fight a good uh main event um and a good test for both of us so um when I see her training her Jiu Jitsu I’m like yeah it’s not going to be an easy fight but I think it could be a great fight for the public and for us and finally my friend Natalia Silva got a finish I just want to know if he saw the fight and what you thought about it yes of course I saw it was kind of my my big motivation this morning you know to get me woken up and ready for the fights I was excited for her um and to see her Friday I thought that she looked phenomenal um I knew that she was gonna go like that I knew that she would have a great performance and she’s definitely a future champion and I’m so proud of her when is it time to get her off the prelims right now next one has to be main event for sure and congratulations thank you congratulations on the win absolutely tremendous performance and it kind of resonated with the crowd because it was like the Mackenzie Dern show you had so much support who was all here for you because that was a loud crowd behind you yeah it’s all my Brazilian friends you know no I had my family I had my mom my stepmom my daughter but I had about like 10 friends from California come out here all Brazilians you know so you know how the Brazilian it’s like we had our little mini fighting in Brazil here you know so it was good it’s definitely um I was just listening for the uh but it was good it was definitely a motivation for me too to have them here and I’m happy about that excellent and um for the people just tuning in or maybe watching this this wonderful achievement tell us about this belt you got tonight yes you know um so it’s actually special because of the stripes um I got my black belt in 2012. so in Jiu Jitsu every three years we get a we get a stripe um and then my dad we were actually talking about this this week you know how long have you been a black belt for and I’m like yeah a long time you know since 2012. um I only had like two two stripes on my belt you know so I was a little bit overdue for a stripe you know but since I’ve been so focused on MMA I hadn’t gone back to Arizona at my dad’s gym for a while you know and he surprised me with my my third stripe so my dad’s a coral belt in Jiu Jitsu so it’s very important for me to be representing Jiu Jitsu always in my heart uh two more for me uh your performance normally we see you know you recoup recharge kind of maybe like create a little bit distance but tonight’s show you just kept pushing the pace it was unbelievable what have you Incorporated for your conditioning because I saw that same first round Pace all the way into the fourth and fifth really turning it on the championship rounds yeah I mean that’s all credit to Roger camois he’s my strength trainer he was a strength trainer for Anderson Silva um all the a lot of the best fighters um he’s been working with me two years you know gradually we’ve been getting better and better and as I’m doing more and more five round fights uh we’re just working the the strength training and the cardio um it’s hard you know it’s hard because I’m a I’m a fighter I’m always going forward since my Jiu Jitsu career all the way my MMA career it’s it’s hard for me to pull the Rings back you know um so what he can do to help me is just make my cardio better and better to keep being able to keep the the pedal going forward I think that Angela did a good job of kind of putting me on the cage you know and holding me down a little bit I was kind of like ah I want to get out of here you know but yeah that’s that’s my style and he’s been helping me with my cardio this whole time so um it’s a little bit nerve-wracking you know because since we’re getting stronger you know you don’t want to get you know too much muscle and get the cardio not so good but I think we’re doing a good balance and getting ready to fight right the Champions you know I see Zhang Wei Liu that for me then a big inspiration the one of the best women’s fight John Willy was Joanna that they kept that pace for five rounds that amazing fight so um if I’m thinking that I want to be a show a show girl like that you know one day I know that I need to be able to to keep the paces for all rounds if I need to if I can’t go to the ground if I do go to the ground excellent and that’ll just bring more fans to you Alex touched on it with you uh wanting to fight Rose but just curious what would be uh If roses a who’s your B and C what other girls stand out that you’re like oh I’m gonna mesh perfectly with this this other fighter and amazing main event um I mean I would like a rematch with Jan um I think she had a great performance with Jessica I think was a really close fight um so I mean I would like to get a rematch with her if Rose wasn’t available but um I don’t know or or even Jessica andron who is a former Champion too um but yeah I mean even I yeah I mean I don’t know that definitely someone in the top ahead of me I’m Number Eight I think so top five but I mean I’m prepared for all of them you know I don’t know how they’ll come sometimes I think they fight one way and then when they fight me they fight a different way so I don’t I can’t say which one will be the best match for me I think that they’re all smart they’re all intelligent Fighters but um even a rematch with Marina but yeah I’ll be ready for whoever they give me congrats on the win making the team and your daughter proud thank you so much thank you