This is a clip from an episode of Fargo Talks where I ask Mackenzie Dern about the first time she truly felt a punch in the UFC.
She tells me it happened against Yan Xiaonan. First 20 seconds of a main event. She slipped expecting a straight and walked straight into a looping overhand. She went blind in one eye for almost a minute and thought something serious had happened.
She also talks about another brutal shot she took later against Amanda Lemos. Same eye. Different damage. This one hurt so bad she dropped, not from being knocked out, but from pure pain.
What stood out to me is what she says next. Most punches do not even register. These ones did. This clip shows the reality of high level fighting, the difference between being hit and being hurt, and what it takes to keep going.
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