Mackenzie Dern left everything in the Octagon at UFC 321, but she still wasn’t sure if it was enough.
After a 25-minute battle with Vilna Jandirova, Dern won a unanimous decision and was announced as the new UFC Strawweight Champion, claiming the title vacated by Weili Zhang. One judge gave the decision 49-46 in Dern’s favor, while two other judges gave it a much closer score of 48-47.
Dern is fully satisfied with her performance, but recognizes that she couldn’t put an exclamation point on the win.
Dern answered “no” during the night’s postgame press conference when asked if he was confident he had won the match. “It wasn’t that I didn’t have confidence. I felt like I did everything I could in the fight, but that’s the judge. I felt like I could win and the fight could be mine, but nobody could say anything because I wanted to get the knockout and I wanted to be the champion by submission or knockout.”
“It’s always going to be that way when it comes to MMA, the critics and the fans. If you leave it to the judges, you never know.”
Dern and Jandilova are considered two of the best grapplers in all of mixed martial arts. When Dern transitioned into the industry in 2016, he had a long list of accomplishments in Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu, including gold medals at the world-renowned ADCC and IBJJF competitions.
But like the first match in December 2020 (which Dern also won), the bulk of Saturday’s co-main event consisted of shocking duels. Jandiroba was the more aggressive wrestler and put Dern on his back multiple times, but when the referee assessed the damage to the leg, Dern went out first.
“I’m feeling a little sore, but I feel great. I think we gave it our all. We really gave it our all to win the game,” Dern said. “But yeah, it’s like a dream come true, but you never know. Every time I accomplish a goal, I always set a new one. So I’m already thinking about getting back in the gym and getting better. I know I have big goals on my shoulders right now, so I want to be ready for what comes next.”
Tatiana Suarez may be one of those targets. In June of this year, Suarez had a chance to become champion when he faced Weili Zhang at UFC 312, but lost in a lopsided decision. Suarez bounced back with a win over Amanda Lemos in September, but the absence of Zhang (the Chinese star vacated the title to challenge flyweight champion Valentina Shevchenko at UFC 322 on Nov. 15) could mean another championship opportunity will come sooner than expected for Suarez.
Dern leaves it to a matchmaker to find the first challenger.
“I don’t know how much of a say you have in being champion right now, you know what I mean?” Dern said. “My words and decisions don’t really affect me, but I’m here to defend them, so whoever is sent to me, I’ll be ready. I don’t know, Weili, but I definitely want to fight Tatiana. I think she can probably get one more fight, but I’d like to have a couple more fights with some grapplers.”