LAS VEGAS – UFC strawweight contender Mackenzie Dern didn’t intend to have her personal issues at the forefront of fight week, but is glad everything came to light.
Ahead of her UFC Fight Night 224 main event bout against Angela Hill at the UFC Apex in Las Vegas, Dern (13-3 MMA, 8-3 UFC) detailed a tumultuous fight camp that included a number of personal hurdles such as changing managers and going through a divorce.
“I didn’t come here with the intention to say like, ‘Oh yeah, all my problems that I’m going through,'” Dern told reporters at the post-fight news conference. “But it was good for me to just let it out there and for people to see we go through things like this. Divorce, child support, all these things, you know? Managers and people wanting all these things from you. It’s like since I’ve been into the MMA world, I’ve always had people wanting to pull me in all these different directions, and I’m learning the sport too. I come from jiu-jitsu, I don’t come from MMA, so I’m learning so much. I didn’t really have a path, you know?
