Who is Mackenzie Dern's ex-husband and what does he do?

Mackenzie Dern is trying to find her rhythm once again as she prepares to fight Amanda Lemos at UFC 298 after suffering a loss against Jessica Andrade in November 2023.

One of the things that Mackenzie Dern has always credited for the success is her family. Dern was married to Wesley Santos, a surfer by profession. Along with Santos, Dern has a daughter, Moa, born in 2019.

The Brazilian occasionally appeared on Dern's social media posts and was seen supporting his wife in training. In one of the older posts, the family was seen enjoying a day at the beach, where Wesley Santos took their little bundle of joy for a ride out into the ocean as well.

The couple usually liked to keep their private lives under wraps. However, they separated in 2022 and were legally divorced in the months that followed. Their divorce became a much-publicized affair that garnered a lot of media attention.

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The time when Mackenzie Dern's husband got into a fight with an MMA coach

On one particular occasion, Wesley Santos came under the limelight of mixed martial arts media for a scuffle with the Black House team. Mackenzie Dern changed her team ahead of her fight with Randa Markos in September 2020 because of a financial dispute with one of her Black House coaches.

Narrating the story on the What the Heck show, Dern herself detailed what transpired in the showdown. Her now former coach Juan Gomez had called Dern and Santos down to the academy because he was not satisfied with his bonus for Dern's previous fight.

However, instead of talking it out in a civil manner, Gomez decided to take things too far and attacked Dern's husband. That's when things got out of hand. Much to Dern's surprise, Santos fought back in a technically sound manner instead of having a brawl.

"So my husband talked to him. My husband’s like this surfer guy, you know, totally good vibes, afro, definitely not the fighter style. He went to go talk to him and [Gomez] was just like, ‘No, if you want to come to the academy, come to the academy and we’ll talk,’ and hung up. We went to the academy and he just swept dirt onto my husband, pushed him, and my husband pushed him back and they just went into a fistfight. It wasn’t like a brawl, a crazy brawl, it was like a street fight or technical fistfight. Back and forth, my husband’s doing feints, and I’m like, ‘Where’s he learning all this?’ It was so crazy."

Dern's professional life seems to have got back on track after the divorce and subsequent public drama. She stepped up to fight Amanda Lemos after Tatiana Suarez, Lemos's original opponent, pulled out of the fight due to an injury.