The main card of UFC 212 in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil features an exciting women’s strawweight strking vs grappling bout as Amanda ‘ABC’ Cooper (3-3 MMA, 2-2 UFC) takes on highly regarded BJJ specialist Mackenzie Dern (6-0 MMA, 1-0 UFC).
Dern last fought at UFC 222 on March 3, 2018. This was her UFC debut as she faced a TUF and MMA veteran Ashley ‘Spider Monkey’ Yoder. She won a razor-thin split decision. Cooper last fought Angela ‘Your Majesty’ Magana at UFC 218 in December 2017 in her home state of Michigan. She won the fight via TKO in the second round. She now enters enemy territory to face Dern in Brazil.
“That night was probably the best night I’ve ever had?fight wise, I’ve been proud of fights before?proud of getting into the TUF house?proud of getting into the finale. I was nervous fighting in front of my hometown, I do better fighting out of state?out of the country I do better. I was really nervous for that fight, hometown and having everyone there. I hadn’t seen (Angela) Magana fight in a long time, so I didn’t know what I was getting into. Definitely with the crowd energy and the way I fought, I couldn’t have asked for anything better than what happened that day,” Cooper said in an exclusive interview with Fightful’s James Lynch.
Cooper wasn’t very impressed by Fern’s performance especially her wrestling game.
“I watched it not knowing I was gonna fight her, so unbiasedly I watched it. I thought Ashley Yoder won, I was shocked because I thought Mackenzie would have won (easily). I thought for sure that Yoder won that fight, it was close and it could be argued like a lot of close fights. I thought Yoder won that and Mackenzie didn’t look good to me, her wrestling’s not great ane even her wall work (is not great). Especially offensively?throwing the same strikes over and over again, everything’s very telegraphed. She throws hard, but its so slow?I don’t even know how she hits people honestly. So I’m expecting a really good fight and obviously I’m gonna get the win,” says Cooper.
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