Mackenzie Dern details how she utilized her personal struggles as motivation in win over Angela Hill: “I was unleashing anger”
Mackenzie Dern is detailing how she utilized her personal struggles as motivation in last month’s win over Angela Hill.
It was on Saturday, May 20th in Las Vegas that Mackenzie Dern (13-3 MMA) faced Angela Hill (15-13 MMA) in the women’s strawweight main event. The outcome was a unanimous decision win for the 30-year-old Dern.
Speaking on the MMA Fighting podcast ‘Trocação Franca’ Dern shared her personal struggles coming into the fight with Hill:
“The first month (of camp), I swear I thought about pulling out of the fight. Lawyers, my ex wanting things, trying to find evidence of things, saying I’m a negligent mother. Imagine me as a mother, I get punched in the face, to be fighting for my daughter, I have to win a fight because I have bills to pay, to pay a house for my daughter, and someone you live with for three years – someone you’ve helped get a green card and support his dreams – is saying you’re negligent, say lies about me.”
Continuing Mackenzie Dern spoke about the challenges:
“Imagine all that, to be defending yourself for a judge and lawyers? All that during a camp. I had so much to lose. We’re always prepared. We’ll give everything we have. We know the consequences. We can get hurt in a fight, we can lose sponsors, we can lose value as a fighter, but let’s go. It all worked out in the end. And all I do is for my daughter.”
Concluding, she spoke of her daughter, saying:
“I didn’t raise my daughter to think that a relationship should be what I had with my ex-husband, you know? It had aggression, it had lies, it was something very toxic. It’s hard to leave a relationship because of family sometimes, you think you need to stay together because of the family. I want something good for my daughter in the future, I want her to have a healthy and happy relationship. Of all the things that were going on, my ex saying he couldn’t work because his back was hurt, saying he couldn’t work because he didn’t speak English even though he’s always spoken English in interviews and all. I hope my daughter sees how much I’m doing for her. I hope she’s proud of me.”
Perhaps her personal struggles did indeed incite her stellar performance in the cage. Dern is now 2 and 2 in her last 4 fights.
Who would you like to see Mackenzie Dern fight next?
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