With her impressive submission win over Amanda Ribas at UFC Vegas 101, Mackenzie Dern is now on a two-fight win streak. That’s nothing special compared to other active streaks in the UFC. But when you’re a needle mover like Dern, you’re never too far away from a title shot if you want it.
Interestingly enough, it’s Dern herself telling the world to pump the brakes on title talks. During the post-fight press conference, the Brazilian jiu-jitsu world champion said she was still building a strong foundation in the hopes of being a dominant champion one day.
“I think I’m very hard on myself and I always try to get better,” Dern said. “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, you know?”
“My idea isn’t to go fight for the belt and then lose it fast,” she continued. “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.”
So what is next for Mackenzie Dern, who currently sits at No. 6 in the women’s strawweight rankings and can expect a bump with the next update?
“My next fights are all going to be like ‘Dern 2,’ all these rematches,” she said. “Any of the girls. I think I’m going to train the best I can no matter who comes. Maybe Virna again.”
Dern beat Virna Jandiroba via decision back in 2020, and since then Jandiroba has gone 5-1 at strawweight to earn the No. 3 spot in the rankings. Most recently Jandiroba was set to fight Tatiana Suarez at UFC 310 but Suarez got injured (again) … then slotted into a title fight against Weili Zhang at UFC 312.
“I know Tatiana [withdrew] and then they kind of threw out that maybe I would step in [against Virna], but I don’t think that fight was really good for her at that time. But now that Tatiana is going for the belt, maybe that’s something that [Virna] would want to do.”
This story originally appeared on MMA Mania
