‘I Lost 50,000 Followers’ When Announcing ‘My Pregnancy’

Mackenzie Dern has experienced firsthand the challenges of being a woman in the UFC.

Mackenzie Dern knows firsthand how fickle mixed martial arts (MMA) fans can be.

Dern vs. Marina Rodriguez headlines UFC Vegas 39, taking place inside the UFC Apex in Las Vegas, Nevada on Sat., Oct. 9 via ESPN+. Ahead of the fight, Dern opened up about the perceptions of being an attractive woman in the fight game.

“You always have to prove yourself,” Dern told MMA Fighting’s Portuguese-language podcast Trocação Franca. “You see men, if men are pretty in people’s opinion, men make fun of them, ‘He’s not that good.’ But women, no, they say, ‘Let’s all watch her fight because she’s beautiful.’ We go through that, you have to prove yourself even more.”

“You always have to prove yourself,” Dern said. “You see men, if men are pretty in people’s opinion, men make fun of them, ‘He’s not that good.’ But women, no, they say, ‘Let’s all watch her fight because she’s beautiful.’ We go through that, you have to prove yourself even more.”

In fact, Dern noticed a steep decline in her online audience after she announced her pregnancy.

“I’m still trying to grow [my fanbase] among women, but I think that’s coming naturally as I represent myself as mother, wife, and fighter,” she said. “But still, I lost 50,000 followers fast when I announced my pregnancy, and 80,000 total until my next fight, but that has definitely changed. The MMA [community] has more men than women so it’s impossible to have more women than men [as followers].”

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