Mackenzie Dern sends message of thanks to Amanda Bobby Cooper: I learned a lot from this

Last weekend, on the main card of UFC 224, grappling ace Mackenzie Dern stepped into the Octagon for the second time, taking on Amanda Bobby Cooper. Dern won this fight in emphatic fashion, dropping her foe in the first round, then submitting her with a rear-naked choke.

Unfortunately, Dern’s win over Cooper comes with an asterisk attached, as she tipped the scales at 123 pounds, a significant seven pounds above the strawweight division’s 116-pound limit.

Given her weigh-in miss, many members of the MMA community have sought to diminish the significance of her abrupt win over Cooper, while others have even suggested she basically cheated.

On Tuesday morning, Dern to Instagram to address her critics, thank Amanda Bobby Cooper and the UFC for allowing her to fight above-weight, and assure that she will learn from her mistakes. See Dern’s post below.

https://www.instagram.com/p/BizfW92nD5i/

“I want to first thank Amanda Cooper for taking the fight against me this Saturday at UFC 224,” Dern said in her post. “[As] most of you know, I missed weight and thankfully, Amanda and the UFC allowed the fight to happen. I know [I] was unprofessional and I truly didn’t mean any disrespect to my opponent, [the] organization or the fans. I really learned a lot from this, and I know this is just making me a better fighter [and] athlete for the future. I appreciate all the messages and support from all of you and I can say that everything is already in the works, with the help of the UFC, to make sure this doesn’t happen again.”

With her win over Cooper, Mackenzie Dern improved to 7-0 as a mixed martial artist.

Who do you want to see the talented Brazilian jiu jitsu specialist fight in her next Octagon bout? Join the conversation in the comments section below.

This article first appeared on BJPenn.com on 5/15/2018.