After victories against Amanda
Ribas and Michelle
Waterson in her last two outings, Marina
Rodriguez is confident that a win over Makenzie Dern in the UFC
Fight Night 194 main event could be her ticket to a strawweight
title shot.
“I have no doubt that an impressive win over Mackenzie via knockout
or submission will get me closer to the title,” said Rodriguez, a
renowned muay Thai specialist who is also a jiu-jitsu purple
belt.
Rodriguez is well aware of the ground credentials of her opponent,
a black belt and a multiple time jiu-jitsu world champion. With
that in mind, Rodriguez has been training plenty of no-gi jiu-jitsu
with black belts Alexandre
de Souza and Igor Soares
ahead of Saturday’s bout.
“Actually, since I arrived in UFC, they have given me some of the
best grapplers of the division. I faced in sequence [Cynthia]
Calvillo, [Carla] Esparza and Ribas, so this camp was pretty much
the same. A lot of grappling and takedown defense,” Rodriguez
said.
Rodriguez doesn’t hide the fact that her primary game plan is to
keep the fight standing against Dern, but she is confident that she
can handle herself if the action ends up on the canvas.
“We studied a lot Mackenzie´s game,” Rodriguez said. “Of course, my
main goal is keep the distance and use my muay Thai. But if she
takes me to the ground, I´m also well trained. I also have
jiu-jitsu skills and I´m ready to show in that fight.”
Rodriguez and her head coach, Marcio Malko, arrived in Las Vegas on
Sept. 20 to help corner training partner Taila
Santos. During that time, they trained at the UFC Performance
Institute, at a boxing academy and also in a house they rented.
“We did everything we could to do to ensure a great performance on
Saturday,” Rodriguez said.
If Rodriguez is victorious against Dern, she still believes she is
behind Carla
Esparza in the strawweight queue. However, Rodriguez will be
ready to step up if needed.
“My job is to be available to the UFC,” she said. If the girls
above me in the rankings are not, I´ll be ready and willing to
dispute the belt. If the UFC wants me to do one more fight, no
problem too. By the way I would love to get revenge against
Carla
Esparza.”