MacKenzie Dern is on the brink of the biggest moment in her UFC career as she prepares to face Virna Jandiroba for the vacant strawweight title at UFC 321, but she isn’t quite sure about herself.
The opportunity comes after Zhang Weili vacated her championship to move up to flyweight, leaving the division wide open for a new queen to emerge. For both Dern and Jandiroba, this marks their first shot at UFC gold after years of grinding through one of the toughest divisions in women’s MMA. Dern is fresh off a submission win over Amanda Ribas, while Jandiroba enters UFC 321 riding an impressive five-fight win streak.
Before Zhang’s exit, she had long ruled the strawweight division with dominance, stacking up wins over Yan Xiaonan, Tatiana Suarez, and Carla Esparza. Her reign followed Joanna Jedrzejczyk’s retirement and set a new bar for excellence among 115-pounders.
While Dern wouldn’t have turned down a title fight against Zhang, she admits she might not have been ready to dethrone the former champion just yet.
“I definitely think that if Weili was champion right now of our division, and I mean, obviously, I wouldn’t say no to a title shot, but I don’t think I’d be ready to fight Weili right now at this moment of my career, you know what I mean?” Dern told MMA Fighting.
“But I do think that if I do win the belt, and then whatever, if we were to fight like at the White House or something in June, I feel like I’d be way more ready and prepared to fight her. I know it’s like, OK, it’s just like what? Like six months or eight months difference. How much better do you think you’re going to get in eight months? But I think just winning the belt, there’s a confidence part that you get from that, and it’s just more training and more time. She was just so dominant in the strawweight division.”
This will be Dern’s 16th UFC appearance and her second meeting with Jandiroba. The two first faced off at UFC 256 in December 2020, where Dern secured a unanimous decision victory.
Now, as she steps into her first title fight, Dern sees Zhang’s departure as a turning point that could finally give her a shot at the strawweight division.
“I really just feel like this is going get all of us a little bit more uplifted,” Dern explained. “Like, we kind of get re-energized, a little bit more confidence in the whole division, kind of see different matchups and all of us just maturing differently as fighters. I feel like either me or Virna, we would be more prepared to fight her if she does decide to come back down right away, you know what I mean?”
“She’s accomplished so much, so if she does retire, or if she does decide to stay at 125, I wouldn’t think too much about it. I mean, it’s the fight world. She’s been in this for like how long? So it’s not like, ‘Oh, I’m only a champion if I beat her,’ but I would like to have the opportunity to fight her. I’m not going to say that I wouldn’t be like,
‘Man, it would be very exciting to fight her,’ but, yeah, the main goal is to beat Virna, win the belt, and then we’ll see if she comes back down or not.”
Whether or not Zhang Weili returns to strawweight, MacKenzie Dern is focused on capturing her first UFC title and continuing her evolution as a fighter. The division may be entering a new era, and Dern plans to be at the center of it.
