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Mackenzie Dern made waves with her dominant unanimous decision victory over Angela Hill in their five-round women's strawweight MMA bout that headlined a UFC Fight Night event in May 2023. Prior to that matchup, Dern confirmed that she's been going through a tumultuous divorce.
When did Mackenzie Dern split with her ex-husband?
Brazilian-American BJJ champion and UFC star Mackenzie Dern was married to Brazilian professional surfer Wesley Santos. In 2019, the couple had a child together, a daughter named Moa. However, the couple separated in 2022, and the court has granted them joint custody of their daughter.
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Speaking to Fanatics View, the grappling savant discussed her divorce. Apparently, the Mackenzie Dern split transpired in 2022, as her divorce proceedings had started before her fight against Yan Xiaonan in October 2022.
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Dern accused Santos of financial improprieties and physical and mental abuse. Meanwhile, Santos labeled her assertions as "false and defamatory" and refrained from publicly detailing his side of the story until their legal battle was over.
Before facing Angela Hill in May 2023, Mackenzie Dern opened up on her divorce during a UFC media scrum. The 30-year-old indicated that right from changing managers and gyms to her divorce proceedings, she had a tough fight camp.
Mackenzie Dern shed light on the reasons for her divorce during various media interviews
Moreover, in an interview with Ariel Helwani on The MMA Hour, Dern emphasized that although she tried to make their marriage work, Santos (Mackenzie Dern's husband) relentlessly escalated his abusive behavior.
Dern opined that it ultimately reached an unbearable stage. She recalled being unable to defend herself, as she feared the legal repercussions of her, an MMA fighter, hitting her husband, who wasn't a professional fighter.
Moreover, during the UFC 295 media day in November 2023, Dern asserted that she'd have to pay a significant sum from her fight purse to her husband as alimony because she's their family's primary earner. Dern stated:
“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."
Watch Mackenzie Dern's assessment below:
More than a year after her highly publicized divorce, Dern seems to have brought her focus back to her fighting career. After suffering back-to-back defeats against Jessica Andrade and Amanda Lemos, she returned to the win column by defeating Loopy Godinez in August 2023.
The 31-year-old will return to competition as she faces Amanda Ribas at UFC Vegas 101 on Jan. 11, the first event of 2024. The fight is the rematch of their first meeting in October 2019, which Ribas won by unanimous decision to hand Dern her first professional MMA defeat.
