Mackenzie Dern is the biggest hope BJJ currently has in the UFC. With the mental collapse of Kron Gracie, Dern is the biggest BJJ star in the UFC, closely followed by Rodolfo Vieira and Gilbert Burns.
Dern recently opened up on a disaster of a divorce, complete with abuse allegations.
Mackenzie Dern told Helwani:
“So I feel like I’ve been having to defend myself this whole time for things that I never thought I’d have to defend myself for,” she said, latter adding, “I was in a situation in my relationship where I couldn’t even defend myself, because I was getting, like, threatened that if I did anything, I’d be talking to the police and I could lose my daughter.
“So, I stayed in my relationship because I believed in the family, and I believe that that’s what God wanted and stuff. But there’s a certain point where you try, try and try, and things don’t change, and it just keeps getting worse and worse. And then, like I was saying, I wasn’t even able to defend myself. … Like, police were getting called to the house. It was just getting out of control, and going through that in front of your daughter, you don’t want your daughter to witness that.”
MMAFighting confirmed in court documents Dern was ordered to pay him spousal and child support totaling $4,006 per month in addition to paying $10,000 for his court fees.
As per source:
“Dern accuses Santos of repeated physical and emotional abuse, once slamming a door on her leg as he allegedly dragged her into their house during a fight. In April, one month after Santos asked the court for custody of Moa, she filed a petition for a domestic violence restraining order, attaching videos of one alleged incident of abuse in which he “threw my phone, water bottles, pillows and bedding while harassing/intimidating me verbally.”
Dern said police responded after the alleged incident was caught on video — which she said did not involve physical abuse — but did not file a report.
In a response to Dern’s restraining order, Santos countered that he was being abused, providing video and pictures of a bloody nose he said was caused by her punch during an alleged incident in the parking lot of a sushi restaurant. He also accused her of beating Moa in a video she sent to him; he denied the abuse allegation in his response.”
Dern’s divorce proceedings started a year ago, however Dern is adamant that her failures in the Yan Xiaonan bout had little to do with it.
Dern became a superstar on the BJJ scene in 2015 when she defeated Gabi Garcia in a rivalry for the ages. Garcia weighed more than twice what Dern weighed at the time.
