the evening\u2019s post-fight press conference<\/a> when asked if she was certain she\u2019d won the fight. \u201cNot that I wasn\u2019t confident, I felt like I did everything I could do with the fight but it\u2019s the judges. I felt like I could win, I felt like the fight could be mine, but I wanted to get a knockout and I wanted to be a champion with a submission or a knockout so no one could say anything.<\/p>\n\u201cWith MMA and the critics and the fans, it\u2019s always going to be like that. If you leave it for the judges\u2019 decision, it could go either way, you never know.\u201d<\/p>\n
Dern and Jandiroba are regarded as two of the best grapplers in all of MMA. When Dern transitioned to the business in 2016, she did so with a laundry list of accomplishments in Brazilian jiu-jitsu, including gold medals at the world-renowned ADCC and IBJJF competitions.<\/p>\n
However, much like in their first fight in December 2020 (which Dern also won), the majority of Saturday\u2019s co-main event was comprised of a striking duel. Jandiroba was the more aggressive wrestler and put Dern on her back several times, but when the judges appraised the damage done on the feet, it was Dern who came out ahead.<\/p>\n
\u201cI feel a little sore, but I feel amazing. I think we let it all out there, we really gave all our best to try and get the fight,\u201d Dern said. \u201cBut yeah, it\u2019s like a dream come true, but I don\u2019t know, every time I reach a goal, I always make a new one. So, I\u2019m already thinking about getting back in the gym, getting better, and I know I have a huge target on my back now, so I want to make sure I\u2019m ready for what\u2019s coming next.\u201d<\/p>\n
One name aiming for that target could be Tatiana Suarez. This past June, Suarez had her chance to become champion when she faced Zhang Weili at UFC 312, but lost a lopsided decision. Suarez rebounded with a win over Amanda Lemos in September and with Zhang out of the picture\u2014the Chinese star vacated her title to challenge flyweight champion Valentina Shevchenko at UFC 322 on Nov. 15\u2014another championship opportunity could be set up for Suarez sooner than expected.<\/p>\n
Dern is leaving it in the hands of the matchmakers to find her first challenger.<\/p>\n
\u201cI don\u2019t know how much say I have in being a champion now, you know what I mean?\u201d Dern said. \u201cI don\u2019t know much my word and my decisions get into play, but I\u2019m here to defend it, so whoever gets sent to me, I\u2019ll be ready for it. I don\u2019t know, Weili, but I would definitely like to just fight Tatiana. I think maybe she gets one more fight in, but I want to have a couple more fights with some grapplers.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Mackenzie Dern left it all in the octagon at UFC 321, but she still wasn\u2019t sure if it…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":242731,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[570],"tags":[64,63,786,1347,785,85,787,1396],"class_list":["post-242730","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-mma","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-fighting","tag-latest-news","tag-mma","tag-sports","tag-ufc","tag-ufc-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/242730","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=242730"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/242730\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/242731"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=242730"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=242730"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=242730"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}