Exclusive: Mackenzie Dern shares why she picks Mark Zuckerberg over Elon Musk despite ACL tear
Mackenzie Dern is gearing up to fight former UFC women's strawweight champion Jessica Andrade at UFC 295 this weekend. The way she perceives it, a fight against a former champion will be a good test for her and the perfect opportunity to break into the top-five rankings of the division.
It is well established by now that tech titan Mark Zuckerberg is a passionate UFC fan and has attended several events at the UFC Apex facility. He was also in attendance with his wife Priscilla at UFC Vegas 61 where Mackenzie Dern faced Yan Xiaonan. While Dern lost that fight, Zuckerberg's wife claimed that she was a fan of Dern's fighting style.
Meanwhile, Mark Zuckerberg, the co-founder of Meta Platforms, has proposed a cage fight with Twitter (now X) owner Elon Musk. The rivalry ignited when reports surfaced about Meta's platform Instagram developing a Twitter competitor (Threads).
Musk challenged Zuckerberg to a fight, with both receiving training offers from several MMA fighters. It's worth noting that Zuckerberg has been training in jiu-jitsu and has been spotted training with prominent names like Alexander Volkanovski and Israel Adesanya in the past.
However, it recently came to light that Zuckerberg tore his ACL while training and would need knee surgery to recover. With all that in mind, Mackenzie Dern weighed in on the potential matchup in a recent exclusive interview with Sportskeeda MMA. She stated:
"I'm going to go for Mark Zuckerberg. I haven't seen Elon's training, I don't know how much he's been training or what he's been training. From my knowledge, I've seen Mark train jiu-jitsu a lot. I think Elon's a little bit bigger. So for me, I've seen Mark train and spar a lot I think he will be able to have a good step up than Elon Musk. But he just tore his ACL. But when he gets back, he'll do good, I think he'll win."
Mackenzie Dern opens up about having to restructure training camp for the Jessica Andrade fight at UFC 295
Mackenzie Dern had to restructure her training camp amid a tumultuous divorce leading up to her fight against Angela Hill at UFC Vegas 73. The Brazilian candidly shared her journey, grappling with the closure of her former gym, RVCA.
Undeterred by the challenges, Dern created a home gym, collaborated with former UFC two-division champion Henry Cejudo, and hosted private sessions. Speaking about the challenges she had to endure in the pre-fight media scrum, Dern stated:
"RVCA closed so I basically made my own home gym. You just keep investing in your dream and hope that it works. I’m trying to make everything private at home because you’re just very vulnerable when everyone’s seeing your training. I’m a world champion in jiu-jitsu but people see me in the gym and I’m crying, I’m frustrated because I feel I should be better at something. I feel like I should be able to get it and I don’t get it."
Catch Mackenzie Dern's comments below:
Tune in: UFC 295: Prochazka vs Pereira will be telecast live on Sony Sports Network in India on 12th November 2023, 8:30 AM IST onwards, on Sony Sports Ten 2 SD & HD, Sony Sports Ten 3 SD & HD (Hindi), Sony Sports Ten 4 SD & HD (Tamil & Telugu) channels & will be available to livestream on Sony LIV.