UFC Vegas 39 headliner Mackenzie Dern feels that being an attractive woman in MMA can mean having more to prove with the sports’ male-dominated audience.

Fourth-ranked UFC strawweight Mackenzie Dern has grown rapidly in popularity and divisional relevancy during her seven-fight run in the promotion. Part of her appeal is based on her talents as one of the best grapplers in the promotion. However, she has also connected with a notable segment of the audience — which is largely male — because of her looks. That sort of optics-driven fanfare Dern admits can be difficult to navigate. Explaining in a recent interview her belief that an attractive female fighter has to work harder to prove to fans that they are tough competitors, and more than just Octagon eye candy.

Mackenzie Dern explains difficulties for female fighters in MMA

You always have to prove yourself. 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,” Dern said during her guest spot on “>The MMA Hour (h/t MMAFighting].

I’m not here putting on razor-thin fights, I’m going there and submitting people in the first round, Dern said. Sure, there were fights where I didn’t submit [my opponent], but I had my nose broke, I’ve shown guts, blood, and everything. Do you think I wanted to have my nose broken?”

The 28-year-old feels that the view of women in MMA can be a double-edged sword in general. For some, joining the sport means losing their feminity in the eyes of their community. While others fear the jump because of the belief success relies heavily on their looks more than the performances they put on in the cage.

There are women that don’t want to start in MMA because they are afraid of becoming too masculine and changing who they are, and other women are afraid of coming [to MMA] because men will only talk about their looks,” said Dern. “It’s a tricky process, you don’t like to cross a line with no one, but it will work out if you’re just being yourself. It’s working out for me at least.

Dern lost a whole bunch of followers after announcing she would be a mom

Although things are working out much better now as she looks for a fifth straight when she faces Marina Rodriguez on Saturday night, Dern has seen the more shallow side of the MMA community. Explaining that once she announced her pregnancy in 2019, many fans were turned off by the idea of her being a mother. The blowback has led to her looking to connect more with female fans of the sport now.

I’m still trying to grow [my fanbase] among women, but I think that’s coming naturally as I represent myself as a 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].

In the end, the realization that some fans turned their backs on her after her life choices, has proven to be positive in ways. As she hopes to evolve the perception of some female fighters beyond what they offer on the surface.

I was deleting some photos of old sponsors, some old stuff, and thought, ‘Let me see if this person that commented here [was still following me],’ and he wasn’t. And I started looking at several old photos and many people that commented things like, ‘You’re so hot’ and whatnot, most of them don’t follow me anymore. I was like, ‘phew, I’ve cleaned it up,” said Dern.

You see OnlyFans and things like that, I don’t judge those who have it, but it’s not my focus. My focus is to represent women and change the idea that the only women that can sell are women that are seen by people as beautiful because, to me, every woman is beautiful, every woman is pretty and everybody puts on a show.”

UFC Vegas 39 takes place inside the UFC APEX in Las Vegas, Nev. on Saturday, Oct. 9. The card kicks off with the prelims at 1:30 pm ET and is then followed by the main card at 4 pm ET. The entire event will air exclusively on ESPN+.