Mackenzie Dern has heard the rumblings about the strawweight champion, and she’s very much interested in a decision soon.
LAS VEGAS – Mackenzie Dern has heard the rumblings about the strawweight champion, and she’s very much interested in a decision soon.
UFC women’s 115-pound champ Zhang Weili (26-3 MMA, 10-2 UFC) has been talking about a move to flyweight for a while. A move up would mean she’d take on 125-pound champ Valentina Shevchenko (25-4-1 MMA, 14-3-1 UFC) for the belt there and a chance to win a coveted title in a second weight class.
If she does that, it would mean the strawweight division would need a champion, and Dern (15-5 MMA, 10-5 UFC) thinks she’d be at the top of the list to fight for a vacant title – likely against Virna Jandiroba (22-3 MMA, 8-3 UFC), who made herself presumably next in line for Weili’s strawweight belt, but would be left without a matchup if the champ moved up to take on Shevchenko.
Dern already has a win over Jandiroba a little less than five years ago. Since then, Jandiroba has gone 6-1, including a win over Yan Xiaonan in April. She’d gladly fight her again, though, if it was for a potentially newly vacant women’s strawweight belt.
“One hundred percent – that’s what’s been talked about with the managers, coaches, things like that,” Dern told MMA Junkie Radio this past week ahead of UFC 317. “My last fight was in January, and I’m waiting till now to get a fight basically because Weili is deciding what she’s going to do.
“I’m like, ‘Let’s go, Weili. You’ve got your belt. Make your decision.’ I’m training. I want to get training so I can figure out what I’m training for. I’m ready to fight. I hope she goes up. I don’t know if they would vacate the (title) or if she would go up and come back down, but I want to see her fight Valentina either way.”
Weili told MMA Junkie Radio a move up to fight Shevchenko is what she’s leaning toward. She is on a five-fight winning streak in her second reign as strawweight champ. She outworked Tatiana Suarez in February for her third successive defense.
The part that Dern said she’s realistic about is her personal timeline as it relates to the champion. If she stepped in with Weili now, the result, she thinks, would be a lot different than if she gets just a little bit more experience in big fights – like the one a rematch with Jandiroba would be for a vacant belt.
“I would love to fight Weili, but not right now,” Dern said. “I’m not there yet. I saw her fight Tatiana … I feel like I could do good with Weili compared to how Tatiana did with her, but on a personal level, I’m not ready for Weili right now.
“But if I were to fight Virna and get the belt, and Weili comes back down, I think that would be enough time to (be ready).”
Plus, Dern just thinks her and Jandiroba is a good matchup for 115 pounds.
“We’re both grapplers. Since Weili was such a striker and (former champion) Joanna (Jedrzejczyk) was a striker and they were so dominant in the division, I think it would be really refreshing and mix up the strawweight division to have a grappler as the champion,” Dern said.
Check out Dern’s full interview above.
