Amanda Bobby Cooper is a rising mixed martial artist who is coming into her own since joining the Ultimate Fighting Championship. The 26-year-old first got her shot in the UFC after reaching the finals of The Ultimate Fighter: Team Joanna vs. Team Claudia strawweight tournament. She finished as the runner-up, losing to Tatiana Suarez by first-round submission.
But since her time on the show, Cooper has secured two wins in three outings, with the lone loss coming to Cynthia Calvillo, one of the top fighters in the division.
Cooper’s next outing in the UFC will be on Saturday, May 12 against undefeated jiu-jitsu ace Mackenzie Dern. While Dern is one of the top prospects in MMA, Cooper is not concerned because of the lack of threat from her wrestling and standup.
“She has bad standup. She throws the same strikes over and over again,” Cooper said in an interview with FloCombat.com. “I haven’t been too impressed. Lately her fights have looked worse than before, so that gives me a good mental edge knowing that I feel like I’m getting better and better.”
UFC 224 takes place at the Jeunesse Arena in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. In the main event, UFC women’s bantamweight champion Amanda Nunes is set to defend her title against Raquel Pennington. The co-main event is a stellar middleweight battle between Ronaldo “Jacare” Souza and Kelvin Gastelum, while legends Vitor Belfort and Lyoto Machida square off in the opening bout of the pay-per-view main card.
