Mackenzie Dern Misses Weight; UFC 224 Fight vs. Amanda Cooper Will Proceed | News, Scores, Highlights, Stats, and Rumors
Sebastian Wright
Published Mar 24, 2026
MMAFighting.com tweeted the following video of Dern failing to make weight:
MMAFighting.com @MMAFightingGrappling star Mackenzie Dern missed weight for her #UFC224 strawweight bout with Amanda Cooper, she registered 123 pounds on the scale.
The fight was supposed to be contested at strawweight, but it will instead be a catchweight bout Saturday at Jeunesse Arena in Rio de Janeiro.
The 25-year-old Dern is a rising star in UFC with a perfect professional record of 6-0.
She rose to prominence as a grappler before dabbling in mixed martial arts in 2016. Dern made her UFC debut in March at UFC 222, beating Ashley Yoder by split decision in a strawweight fight.
Dern's father, Wellington Dias, is a well-known Brazilian jiu-jitsu practitioner and a native of Brazil, so Saturday's fight will be a homecoming of sorts for Dern.
The 26-year-old Cooper has a career record of 4-3. She appeared on The Ultimate Fighter in 2016, and under the UFC umbrella, she is 2-2.
She won her most recent contest against Angela Magana at UFC 218 in December.
Despite the weigh-in slip-up by Dern, she and Cooper will still be part of a main card that will be main-evented by Amanda Nunes defending her bantamweight title against Raquel Pennington.
