While Mackenzie
Dern entered the
Ultimate Fighting Championship with a fair amount of hype
behind her, it has taken some time for her to develop into more of
a complete mixed martial artist.
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That evolution was on display in the
UFC Vegas 101 headliner on Saturday, as Dern outstruck Amanda
Ribas on the feet before eliciting a tapout from her Brazilian
foe with an armbar at the 4:56 mark of Round 3. The triumph allowed
Dern to avenge a previous defeat against Ribas that occurred in
October 2019. Though Dern believes she is improving in all facets,
the ultimate goal remains the same.
“I feel like the striking and everything is setting up more of my
jiu-jitsu. I feel like when I get a submission, it’s not because I
was focusing on being a striker. But I think it means my striking
and my takedowns are getting better. It’s giving me more
opportunities to still get the fight to the ground,” Dern said at
Saturday’s post-fight press conference.
“I’m always trying to get the fight to the ground. Every fight, I’m
trying to get the fight to the ground. I think it just kind of
shows more that the other areas are getting better when I get the
submission.”
Dern began her promotional tenure with victories in six of her
first seven Octagon appearances. However, she fell on hard times
beginning in 2021, losing four of her next six outings as the level
of opposition became more difficult. After back-to-back triumphs
over Ribas and Lupita
Godinez, Dern remains an intriguing contender at strawweight,
but she plans on remaining patient on the road to her primary
objective of becoming a UFC champion.
“I think I’m very hard on myself ,and I always try to get better.
Even when I have a great performance, I think I did so many things
wrong. So I think it’s a lot of play messing in your head, so it
can take your journey and maybe makes it a little longer. But I
think in the end it really helps you want to be the best fighter
possible if you can really look back and have constructive
criticism on yourself,” Dern said.
“My idea isn’t to go fight for the belt and then lose it fast. My
idea is to get the belt, and I want to be a dominant champion, so
I’m not in a rush to get there. I want to have good fights, and I
want to make a statement.”
Reigning strawweight queen Weili Zhang
is currently slated to defend her belt against Tatiana
Suarez in the co-main event of UFC 312.
Dern is aware that she could be one of the names on call if
something to go awry with either fighter in that bout — but she
won’t rush into anything if the situation isn’t right.
“I think definitely my name could be thrown in there if something
happens,” Dern said. “They’ve called me on short notice before,
like with Amanda
Lemos, her fight before me was just for the title. So I think
definitely I could be thrown in there.
“If we would accept it or not, I don’t know. That’s something me
and the team would have to go through. I definitely don’t want to
accept something if we’re not ready and just have a bad
performance, but I think my name’s definitely close there now.”