UFC 321: Mackenzie Dern full post-fight interview
UFC 321 winner Mackenzie Dern spoke to MMA Junkie and reporters post-fight after her vacant strawweight title victory over Virna Jandiroba.
ABU DHABI – Mackenzie Dern is the new UFC women’s strawweight champion, and she’s already got her first order of business in mind.
In a hard-fought, five-round fight, Dern (15-5 MMA, 10-5 UFC) outpointed Virna Jandiroba (22-3 MMA, 8-3 UFC) to win a unanimous decision and the vacant 115-pound title in the UFC 321 co-main event Saturday at Etihad Arena.
Now with the belt in hand, Dern said she’s down to welcome any challengers. But if she has her say, she’d like to make her first defense against a rival who not long ago was considered the “boogie woman” of the division.
“I don’t know how much say I have now being a champion,” Dern told reporters at the UFC 32 post-fight press conference. “I don’t know how much my word and my decisions get into play. But I’m here to defend it, so whoever gets sent to me, I’ll be ready for. I don’t know if (Zhang) Weili (will come back), but I would definitely like to fight Tatiana (Suarez). Maybe she gets one more fight in. I want to have a couple more fights with some grapplers.”
Dern and Tatiana Suarez have never fought before and are considered two of the best grapplers in women’s MMA, with Suarez known for her world-class wrestling, and Dern for her elite jiujitsu. Suarez is coming off a unanimous decision win over former UFC title challenger Amanda Lemos last month. It was her first bout since she lost a decision to former champion Weili in a title fight. Prior to the loss, she was undefeated.
Dern more or less got what she expected in the vacant title fight Saturday. She thought Jandiroba would mainly strike with some wrestling mixed in, and that’s what she got. She said she felt well-prepared for her biggest career moment.
“I thought that her strategy would be striking, kind of how she did, and then try a takedown at the end of each round to steal the round,” Dern said. “That’s what I imagined her strategy would be. I feel like I stayed controlling the cage. I feel like I was landing more shots. We felt like we could let loose in our striking because if we did fall on the ground, we were comfortable on the ground. Of course, there’s always that risk that you could get the round stolen from you being on the bottom, but I really just tried being dangerous on the ground – like attacking the whole time and trying to get a submission, and when i saw her stalling just kick her off me and get back up again.”
As far as her own performance, Dern hoped to have claimed the title by finish, and not by decision. In the end, she’s happy she got the victory, but she does admit it didn’t come in an ideal manner.
“I felt like I could win. I felt like the fight could be mine, but I wanted to get a knockout and be like a champion with a submission or a knockout so no one could say anything,” Dern explained. “With MMA and the critics, it’s always going to be like that.”
