Mackenzie Dern is looking to join the Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) roster this year.
Dern may only have a professional mixed martial arts (MMA) record of 2-0, but she is a highly regarded Brazilian jiu-jitsu black belt under her father, Wellington Dias. Dern made her MMA debut back in July 2016. She defeated Kenia Rosas by unanimous decision.
The strawweight then met Montana Stewart three months later. Dern earned a first-round submission victory. Dern told Flo Combat that while she’s working on her stand-up, she isn’t planning on abandoning her ground game:
“The big thing right now is my stand-up. I’m still a little bit active in jiu-jitsu right now even though they are pushing me to go 100 percent just MMA. It’s so hard for me to leave the jiu-jitsu game and I’m not quite ready to do that. My jiu-jitsu timing is still very good, we are really just working the stand-up.”
While Dern has just gotten her MMA career started, she has a ton of hype surrounding her. Some think it’s only a matter of time before we see Dern inside the Octagon. The 23-year-old is in no rush.
“Right now I did the Europeans this year. I came back and had a super fight for ‘Fight to Win.’ I would like to do the Pan American Championships, which is one weekend after my upcoming MMA fight so I’m hoping I don’t get injured. Right now I am [ranked] No. 1 in the world [in jiu-jitsu], so I would like to go into the UFC being No. 1 in the world. The ranking finishes at the Worlds, then hopefully I can make my debut in the UFC this year, maybe in June or July. I would like to do that. I told myself when I’m in the UFC then I’ll be 100 percent [MMA]. Maybe if I don’t have a fight coming up maybe I’ll do a super fight or do the ADCC, but not doing all these other tournaments I’ve been doing so much. It’s addicting. So addicting.”
