Mackenzie Dern taking it as a ‘compliment’ that Cooper wants to stop her hype

The hardest thing for Octagon opponents of Mackenzie Dern to do may be getting under her skin. The BJJ world champion grappler made the jump to MMA back in 2016 and while her unbeaten 6-0 record is nice, her unrelenting positivity is what has really started to shine through.

In a recent interview with Submission Radio the MMA Lab talent talked about her upcoming opponent for UFC 224 in May, Amanda Cooper, and Cooper’s self-stated long standing goal of derailing Dern’s hype train. For Dern however, Cooper’s intensity is entirely a positive.

“I thought it was cool,” Dern said when asked about Cooper’s focus on her. “Like, I think it’s good that people come with that mentality. Like, if they don’t come with their best self, I won’t feel good if I beat them and they’re not at 100 percent.Like, I’d rather beat them knowing that they’re at their best and I’m at my best and the best person won. So, I’m excited. I think that’s good that she comes to beat me.

“I think that means that she’ll train as much as she can. I know I’m going to train as hard as I can to win this fight. If it was Amanda Cooper or anyone else in front of me, I’m gonna train the same way, I’m gonna prepare myself the same way. I’m excited, I think it’s good. Like, I think that’s the first person that kind of talked a little bit, so it’s exciting for me. Like, then I’m really gonna be in a fight.”

“I don’t know,” Dern continued, speaking of why Cooper said she’d be training for Dern for a long time. “I didn’t know who she was until like just recently. So, I mean, I don’t know her background. I think she’s maybe, she’s like a boxer? But I think probably like maybe she heard of me before, and me being like a Jiu Jitsu person and her being a stand-up person. You know, I think even when I was outside the UFC, anyone who was fighting me, sometimes I knew they wanted the fight but I knew it was more for the publicity and the attention behind it.

“Like, for sure I think she has less to lose in the fight than me. So, if she beats me, like man, that’s awesome, she stopped the hype train and everything. If she loses, it’s like not a big deal too. It’s like, OK, whatever. So I think for her she can just, it would be good if she can stop the hype, it would make it even better for her and her career and everything. But like I said, I didn’t really know anything about her before. So I kind of take it as a compliment that she had heard about me and that was training for me. I think that’s great (laughs).”

Eventually, however, Dern admits she’s is looking to improve on her debut performance and get the submission win. She even says that she’d like to stand up less this time around, if possible. “My goal in this fight is not to be too much staying standing up… I want to get the submission for Brazil, show like the real Brazilian Jiu Jitsu.”

UFC 224 goes down on May 12th in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. The event is expected to be headlined by a women’s bantamweight title fight between Amanda Nunes and Raquel Pennington.