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Mackenzie Dern is gearing up to face Jessica Andrade in a strawweight bout at UFC 295, scheduled for Saturday, November 11, at Madison Square Garden in New York City.
Dern found herself embroiled in a convoluted legal dispute filled with a series of accusations, allegations of abuse, and a widely publicized divorce from her ex-husband, Wesley Santos, right before her bout against Angela Hill at UFC Vegas 73 in May.
While Santos has been a source of difficulty for Mackenzie Dern this year, in 2020, he engaged in a physical altercation with Dern's ex-coach, Juan Gomez, to shield her from Gomez's anger concerning a fight bonus issue.
During her appearance on the What the Heck show that same year, the strawweight fighter reflected on the incident:
"We went to the academy and he just swept dirt onto my husband, pushed him, and my husband pushed him back and they just went into a fistfight. It wasn’t like a brawl, a crazy brawl, it was like a street fight or technical fistfight. Back and forth, my husband’s doing feints, and I’m like, 'Where’s he learning all this?' It was so crazy."
Furthermore, Mackenzie Dern disclosed that the incident led to her parting ways with both Gomez and the Black House team:
"As soon as I saw that my coach attacked my husband, that just finished it for us. I love Black House and everything they’ve done for me, but that coach, I can’t work with that. No matter how much, I don’t know, if you’re mad about it because your bonus wasn’t high enough, you just can’t attack someone." [MMA Fighting]
Mackenzie Dern opens up about settling alimony during divorce
Mackenzie Dern recently revealed her experience trying to settle alimony payments amid her divorce from ex-husband Wesley Santos.
The 30-year-old Brazilian accused Santos of abuse and emphasized her difficulty in protecting herself due to concerns about potential legal consequences and the risk of losing custody of her daughter, Moa.
Furthermore, Dern was designated as the main income provider in their relationship, resulting in a court mandate to cover her estranged husband's $10,000 in legal fees and a monthly spousal and child support payment of $4,000.
During her UFC 295 media day interview, Mackenzie Dern mentioned that despite her legal separation, a significant portion of her earnings from her upcoming fight against Jessica Andrade will be directed toward supporting her ex-partner:
"I realized we always have problems. Just the pressure. The last one I went through the divorce. The divorce is final but you don’t realize how much aftermath there is to it. Literally, this whole fight is still paying my ex. It’s crazy, I have to get punched in the face and you work so hard and you do all this and you have to like pay that much of something."
Check out Dern's comments below:
