Chael Sonnen scorched UFC strawweight Mackenzie Dern for a missed opportunity at UFC Vegas 101.
UFC strawweight contender Mackenzie Dern won the promotion’s first main event of the year at UFC Vegas 101 over a familiar foe, Amanda Ribas by submission. After a back-and-forth first few rounds of the fight, Dern secured an armbar submission in the closing seconds of Round 3 to begin her 2025 with an impressive performance.
Dern has now won two fights in a row and is marching towards a potential title shot. Despite getting post-fight mic time to call out the winner of the upcoming Zhang Weili vs. Tatiana Suarez title fight, Dern didn’t call for a title shot and shared an unfocused plan for her next UFC fight.
Sonnen, whose legendary career featured some of the greatest post-fight callouts, believes Dern’s failure to call anyone out at UFC Vegas 101 will keep her from the belt.
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Chael Sonnen scorches Mackenzie Dern for post-fight remarks at UFC Vegas 101
During a recent episode of Good Guy/Bad Guy with Daniel Cormier, Sonnen roasted Dern for not calling for a title shot after her UFC Vegas 101 victory.
“I couldn’t go back over Mackenzie’s career and hand her one compliment on anything she’s done from an entertainment aspect, couldn’t tell you one time she had a microphone in her hand and turned it into a pipe bomb,” Sonnen said. “I could tell you before she made her UFC debut, a guy named Chael Sonnen called her to do a pure grappling match, straight up Jiu-Jitsu against someone called Miesha Tate, who was one of the biggest names in the whole sport. And there was no amount of money to get Mackenzie on the airplane to do the match. Her reasoning? She wanted to focus on MMA.
“I tried to explain to her that if she wanted to break into MMA, this is Miesha Tate, get your money. And she never did it…missing punches, blocking shots with her face. I’ve never seen Mackenzie get it right…everyone likes her, myself included, everyone seems to be rooting for her for reasons I really can’t explain to you.
“She looks like she does really care about the sport…but as far as understanding what makes dollars has got to make sense, she doesn’t know what any of those words mean. I’ve never seen a second-generation athlete so unaware of the sport that’s going on around them.”
Dern, as of this writing, hasn’t responded to Sonnen’s criticisms. She’s the daughter of Megaton Dias, a highly decorated Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu grappling ace.
Mackenzie Dern made the case for No. 1 contender fight despite no post-fight callout
Dern, once hailed as the ‘next Ronda Rousey’, has had an up-and-down run in her UFC career. She’s defeated the likes of Angela Hill, Virna Jandiroba, and Loopy Godinez, but has suffered defeats against eventual top title challengers Amanda Lemos and Yan Xiaonan.
After defeating Ribas at UFC Vegas 101, Dern makes a strong case for a No. 1 contender fight against another top strawweight, potentially in a rematch against Xiaonan. But she could also be called upon for the backup fighter slot to Weili vs. Suarez next month at UFC 312.
Despite her strong performance at UFC Vegas 101, Dern lacked a clear direction in her post-fight remarks, and Sonnen believes she made a significant mistake in not highlighting herself amongst the top contenders.