UFC strawweight Mackenzie Dern has issued an emotional response after coming up short against Yan Xiaonan at UFC Vegas 61.

Mackenzie Dern : Mark Zuckerberg | Husband | Stats

Dern was born in Arizona, the daughter of Wellington “Megaton” Dias, a highly decorated grappling competitor himself.

As a child, she grew up travelling back and forth between Arizona and her father’s native Brazil. Dern is fluent in English and Portuguese.

She has stated that Portuguese has become her primary tongue, explaining that “my Dad and step Mom are both Brazilian. My boyfriend speaks Portuguese. I’m speaking Portuguese more than English.

I still have lots of interactions in English of course. But I think in Portuguese, anything to do with fight is all in Portuguese in my mind, I dream in Portuguese.”

Dern began training by the age of three and practicing with her father and stepmother who is also a black belt, Luciana Tavares. Mackenzie started competing at a young age, and began competing in the adult divisions at 14 years old. 

Mark Zuckerberg 

Dern vs. Yan came to light as someone edited the event’s Wikipedia page to show only billionaire Mark Zuckerberg’s name under the ‘Attendance’ section.

The edit came after Zuckerberg was seen in attendance for UFC Vegas 61 with his wife. Dana White and the UFC had earlier announced that the UFC Apex Facility will be closed off to media personnel and fans on Oct. 1.

Mackenzie Dern : Mark Zuckerberg | Husband | Stats

Although no official reason was given, rumors started flying that it had something to do with the Meta CEO.

MMA journalist Ariel Helwani delved into the issue and shared his thoughts on the logic behind the decision:

“I was told that it had to do something with Mark Zuckerberg. Now, is he renting it out just for him? … Are they renting it out to do something? Some sort of metaverse event?… We’ll see.

“Maybe that’s why Dana White was being coy about it. You know when he has an announcement to make, you know, when he has something up his sleeve, he doesn’t just like to blurt it out.”

UFC president Dana White denied the rumors, saying Zuckerberg had not rented out the Apex facility for UFC Fight Night: Dern vs. Yan.

Mackenzie Dern Husband 

Outside the octagon, Derns spends most of her time with her boyfriend Wesley Santos, who’s a trained Brazilian surfer.

He is 26 years old and the pair are seen spending time with each other at beautiful beaches in between fights.

Mackenzie Dern : Mark Zuckerberg | Husband | Stats

Santos accompanies Derns in most of her fights and supports her in every way possible.

Dern revealed that her husband got into a scuffle with her head coach which led her to change her gym. Dern explained the situation was about money and addressed the topic openly with the media. Here’s what she said.

“So my husband talked to him. My husband’s like this surfer guy, you know, totally good vibes, afro, definitely not the fighter style. He went to go talk to him and [Gomez] was just like, ‘No, if you want to come to the academy, come to the academy and we’ll talk,’ and hung up. We went to the academy and he just swept dirt onto my husband, pushed him, and my husband pushed him back and they just went into a fistfight. It wasn’t like a brawl, a crazy brawl, it was like a street fight or technical fistfight. Back and forth, my husband’s doing feints, and I’m like, ‘Where is he learning all this?’ It was so crazy.”

Wesley and Dern have a baby daughter together named Moa who was born on the 9th of June, 2019. The pair post plenty of pictures of their adorable daughter online, and travel to beaches with her.

Stats

Dern was scheduled to make her mixed martial arts debut against Kenia Rosas at Legacy FC 58. She won her debut by unanimous decision.

Dern was scheduled to fight Montana De La Rosa at Legacy FC 61. The bout was initially scheduled to be contested at strawweight, but was later changed to catchweight, as Dern missed weight by 2.8 lbs. She won the fight by a first round submission.

Mackenzie Dern : Mark Zuckerberg | Husband | Stats

                      Mixed martial arts record                  
Total 15
Wins 12
By submission 7
By decision 5
Losses 3
By decision 3

Dern made her promotional debut against Ashley Yoder on March 3, 2018, at UFC 222. She won the fight via split decision.

Dern faced Amanda Cooper on May 12, 2018 at UFC 224. At the weigh-ins, Dern weighed in at 123 pounds, 7 pounds over the strawweight non-title fight upper limit of 116 pounds.

As a result, the bout proceeded at catchweight and Dern was fined 30% of her purse. Dern won the fight via submission through a rear naked choke in the first round.

After a hiatus from maternity leave, Dern faced Amanda Ribas on October 12, 2019 at UFC on ESPN+ 19. She lost the fight via unanimous decision.

Dern was expected to face Ariane Carnelossi on April 25, 2020 at UFC Fight Night 173. Carnelossi was forced to withdraw from the bout due to travel restriction.

By Rishabh

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *