[ad_1]
Mackenzie Dern has to pick up the pieces after suffering the first knockout loss of her career with her setback against Jessica Andrade at UFC 295 on Saturday.
The multi-time grappling champion was once touted as the future of the UFC strawweight division, but has gone just 2-3 over her past five octagon appearances. Dern also openly discussed struggles in her personal life after going through an ugly divorce as well as enduring changes to her training camp following the closing of her former gym.
UFC welterweight Matt Brown considers himself a fan of Dern, but he was stunned by her performance against Andrade, especially as far as her striking was concerned.
“Andrade impressed me, but Mackenzie Dern looked so f****** terrible, and I love Mackenzie Dern,” Brown said on The Fighter vs. The Writer. “I love her jiu-jitsu and watching her fight, but my god her standup, I can’t even describe how bad it looked. I love Mackenzie Dern, but holy s*** that was bad.”
During UFC 295’s broadcast, the commentary team mentioned that Dern no longer had striking coach Jason Parillo in her corner after working together for several years. While Dern still managed to land some shots in her standup exchanges with Andrade, she ultimately became the first woman to ever get dropped four times in a UFC bout.
Brown sees a lot of room for improvement, but he believes Dern forcing herself into uncomfortable positions when getting ready for a fight would be even more important.
“I’m not trying to convince her to come here [to train with me], but you’ve got to get away from the comforts of life when you’re getting ready for a camp,” Brown said. “I see people like her that train that way or they think that way, ‘I like being next to the beach and that’s where I want to have my training camp.’ It’s like, no, you’ve got to go through hell in training camp.
“That’s why I actually love what Tony Ferguson is doing, even though I’m not a big [David] Goggins fan at all. I’m actually one of the few people, especially hard ass people, that’s just not a fan of him, but I love that Tony Ferguson is doing that.”
Dern did manage a takedown on Andrade in the early stages of the fight, but it was short-lived, as the former strawweight champion bounced back to her feet almost immediately.
The biggest problem Brown saw with that grappling attempt came from Dern’s technique, which he sees as a common issue, especially when addressing women’s fights in the UFC.
“I want to ask all female fighters to do one thing for me, and I might even ask that you make this the headline,” Brown said. “All female fighters, please stop with the f****** head-arm throws. It’s f****** garbage.
“Unless you’re an expert at it, but even then you still don’t land in a great position. If you’re Mark Coleman, that’s a great position [if you’re at] UFC 12 with Dan Severn because you can break a f******* bowling bowl right there because he’s so strong. But get the f*** out of here with these godd*** head-arm throws. Stop it! It’s just a terrible technique.”
Brown also addressed the personal issues that both Andrade and Dern revealed in the days leading up to their matchup, as both fighters underwent divorces over the past year.
After going through a similar situation in his own career, Brown sympathizes with Dern and Andrade, but also admits those distractions shouldn’t take away from a UFC performance.
“I went through a divorce,” Brown said. “I know what that is, so I get what they’re going through, but that’s no excuse. You go in there and you get your 15 minutes, and you just have to get your mind on that.
“You can’t let other things infiltrate your mind. That’s all there is to it. I’m not saying I did better than anyone else, but I learned that lesson from that.”
As far as what comes next for Dern and her career, Brown says it’s up to her to decide if she’s already hit the ceiling of her potential or if she’s willing to go the extra mile to put herself in a position to battle for a UFC title one day.
“I think she has a long way she can go still,” Brown said. “I think she can get her standup in order. I think she has the athleticism, but it’s up to her whether she’s going to commit to it, dedicate to it, commit to winning that battle.
“Obviously, she needs her wrestling and her standup game together. She has the jiu-jitsu. She needs to maintain and keep making small improvements there. But obviously for her to get to the top level, it’s up to her if she decides to improve her standup and her wrestling. I think she has the potential to do it. It’s just the matter of whether her and her team put in the work to do it. I think she can.”
Listen to new episodes of The Fighter vs. The Writer every Tuesday with audio only versions of the podcast available on Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Spotify, and iHeartRadio
[ad_2]
Source link
