Chael Sonnen criticizes UFC’s Mackenzie Dern for being ‘so unaware of the sport’

Chael Sonnen thinks Mackenzie Dern missed the mark by not calling for a title shot after UFC Fight Night 249.

Dern (16-5 MMA, 11-5 UFC) picked up her second-straight win when she submitted Amanda Ribas (12-7 MMA, 7-6 UFC) in Round 3 of Saturday’s main event rematch at the UFC Apex in Las Vegas.

Considering her jiu-jitsu accolades, Sonnen thinks Dern has failed to market herself properly.

“I could not go back over Mackenzie’s career and hand her one compliment on anything she’s done from an entertainment aspect,” Sonnen said on “Good Guy/Bad Guy” with Daniel Cormier. “I couldn’t tell you one time she had a microphone in her hand and turned it into a pipe bomb. I could not tell you one opportunity that she pushed everybody else aside and came and got it for herself.

“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 somebody 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 wants to focus on MMA. So, I’m attempting to explain to her that if you want to break into MMA, this is Miesha Tate, come get your money, and she never did it.”

After avenging her 2019 loss to Ribas, which was the first of her career, Dern said she’s in no rush for a title shot. Although Dern has now headlined four UFC Fight Night events, Sonnen doesn’t think she’s capitalized enough from her popularity.

“She decides she needs to get better at jiu-jitsu, she leaves her father, Wellington ‘Megaton,’ one of the biggest stars there is, goes out with Jason Parillo in California and starts hitting mitts which got her nowhere than missing punches and blocking shots with her face,” Sonnen added. “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, myself included.

“She looks like she does really care about this sport. She talks about some of her hardships and things outside the ring which do compel you very much to her, 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.”

For more on the card, visit MMA Junkie’s event hub for UFC Fight Night 249.