{"id":395850,"date":"2026-01-06T18:51:09","date_gmt":"2026-01-06T18:51:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/395850\/"},"modified":"2026-01-06T18:51:09","modified_gmt":"2026-01-06T18:51:09","slug":"zhang-weilis-coach-discusses-exciting-mackenzie-dern-match-up","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/395850\/","title":{"rendered":"Zhang Weili’s Coach Discusses Exciting Mackenzie Dern Match-Up"},"content":{"rendered":"

Entering 2026, Mackenzie Dern is the strawweight champion. Fighting Virna Jandiroba for the vacant belt at UFC 321<\/a>, Dern was able to out-point her foe to\u00a0finally secure gold. The reason that the belt was vacant is because former champion, Zhang Weili, was scheduled to move up in weight to clash with Valentina Shevchenko for the flyweight belt.<\/p>\n

Weili was stripped of her belt, a new rule for the UFC, after seeking a belt in a different division. It\u2019s worth noting that the Chinese superstar didn\u2019t lose the 115lbs belt in the octagon.<\/p>\n

The assumption is that\u00a0Magnum will now return to her natural weight of 115lbs after getting completely dominated by Shevchenko at UFC 322. She looked tiny in comparison to\u00a0Bullet, which means that she\u2019ll more than likely drop back down in weight.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>UFC 322 \u2013 Della Maddalena vs Makhachev NEW YORK CITY, NY- NOVEMBER 15:Valentina Shevchenko and Zhang Weili meet in the octagon for a 3-round bout at UFC 322 \u2013 Della Maddalena vs Makhachev at Madison Square Garden on November 15, 2025, in New York City, NY. Photo by Louis Grasse\/PxImages NEW YORK CITY, NY Madison Square Garden NEW YORK CITY, NY United States Copyright: xLouisxGrassex<\/p>\n

There\u2019s no reason to suggest that she has to yet again prove herself fit for a title shot at strawweight and a presumed match-up between Mackenzie Dern and Zhang Weili will take place in 2026.<\/p>\n

John Wood Suggests Zhang Weili vs Mackenzie Dern for the Strawweight Strap<\/p>\n

Ahead of that potential bout, Weili\u2019s coach, John Wood, has been discussing<\/a> the fight and noted that the belt Dern holds is \u201cWeili\u2019s belt\u201c.<\/p>\n

He also noted that \u201cThere\u2019s obviously a clear cut path to go back and take that title from Mackenzie \u2014 no disrespect to Mackenzie\u201d,\u00a0suggesting that his fighter would have no issues beating Dern to get her belt back.<\/p>\n

It may not be as easy as Wood suggests, with Dern showing clear improvements fight on fight.<\/p>\n

Embed from Getty Images<\/a>Could you see a fight between Zhang Weili and the champion, Mackenzie Dern, materialise? Let us know in the comments!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Entering 2026, Mackenzie Dern is the strawweight champion. Fighting Virna Jandiroba for the vacant belt at UFC 321,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":395851,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[570],"tags":[64,63,786,785,85],"class_list":["post-395850","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-mma","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-fighting","tag-mma","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/395850","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=395850"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/395850\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/395851"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=395850"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=395850"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=395850"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}