Dern blames brutal weight miss on bad dieting

Mackenzie Dern couldn't have been surprised about being asked why she missed weight for UFC 224 after going over by seven pounds.

Weighing in almost at the next weight class up, Dern's second win in the UFC wasn't nearly as impressive as it could have been, finishing Amanda Cooper at 2:27 of the first round. Dern has now missed weight in three of her seven MMA bouts and blamed her latest flub on a bad diet.

"I really believe what happened with my weight is my diet," Dern said at the post-event press conference, according to MMA Fighting. "I need to get my diet right. The fact that I was able to do it before, I thought I could still do it."

The former Brazilian jiu-jitsu champ was invited to leave "The MMA Lab" after not showing the dedication coaches were looking for after her last fight and moved her camp to California, where she prefers the lifestyle. Dern says she'll change up her prep again for the next bout, going to the UFC Performance Institute in Las Vegas to address the weight cutting issues.

Dern said she tried her "hardest" to make the weight for this fight and that it was not her decision to stop trying to get to 115 pounds. She doesn't see the issue as insurmountable to gaining trust of fans and the UFC.

"I don't take steroids," said Dern. "I wasn't popped for anything. There are champions caught for drugs and coke. This was a mistake."