Mackenzie Dern Trash Talks UFC 224 Opponent, Labels Her Easy Matchup

Top MMA prospect Mackenzie Dern and Amanda Cooper are scheduled to throw down in the Octagon this Saturday at UFC 224, but the two fighters are already letting shots fly through the media.

The latest example of that came Monday, as Dern threw some serious shade while talking about the bout with MMAFighting.com.

"She doesn't think I'm good at all, basically. It's OK. I think that Ashley [Yoder] was a harder opponent than her," she said, before adding on "All of Amanda's losses are by submission. So, I think the fight with Amanda is gonna be a good matchup with me. I think it's gonna be way easier than against Ashley, who is taller and everything."

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Dern, an accomplished Brazilian jiu-jitsu practitioner, joined the UFC to much fanfare in March but left many onlookers scratching their heads as she struggled to deal with an opponent who was supposed to have been woefully overmatched. Many wondered what the cause of her struggles was, but when she was matched with Cooper just a month later, her next opponent offered a straightforward explanation: She isn't actually that good.

That has added a bit of a bloodfeud angle to this fight, which is new territory for Dern, whose MMA career to this point has largely been clear sailing through the independent circuit. That suits her just fine, though, because according to Dern, all that will do is get the crowd at UFC 224, which takes place in Rio de Janeiro, even more excited.

"It's the first person I'm fighting that's kind of talking about me, so I'm surprised," she said. "If it was in Vegas, I think it would be different. But man, she's fighting in Brazil...You know the 'uhh vai morrer,' they're gonna say it no matter what, but the more she talks, the worst."

While there are many intriguing layers to this fight in Dern's Brazilian homecoming and the back-and-forth trash talk, make no mistake. This fight is all about whether or not she is ready for the Octagon.

As Dern alluded to, this is a tailor-made matchup for her, and the expectation will be a quick, clean submission win. If she can't pull it off? It may spell doom for her long-term prospects in the cage.