{"id":857669,"date":"2026-08-16T20:38:09","date_gmt":"2026-08-16T20:38:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/857669\/"},"modified":"2026-08-16T20:38:09","modified_gmt":"2026-08-16T20:38:09","slug":"dern-on-ufc-330-win-i-couldve-finished-this-fight","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/857669\/","title":{"rendered":"Dern On UFC 330 Win: ‘I Could’ve Finished This Fight’"},"content":{"rendered":"

This author receives a commission through recommended links in this content. See our affiliate disclosure<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Mackenzie Dern defended her strawweight<\/a> title with a decision over Gillian Robertson at UFC 330<\/a> but walked away feeling she should have done more.<\/p>\n

Dern dominated the grappling exchanges in Philadelphia and nearly secured a rear-naked choke in the first round, but the bell saved Robertson. The champion controlled position over the final 20 minutes without finding another submission. “It feels good, but it could feel even better if I would’ve got the submission,” Dern said at the post-fight press conference, per MMA Mania. “I definitely think that I could’ve finished this fight for sure.”<\/p>\n

\ud83c\udf9f\ufe0f Get tickets: Buy tickets to UFC 330 on Ticketmaster \u2192<\/a><\/p>\n

Dern Rejects Weili Zhang Pressure<\/p>\n

The Brazilian jiu-jitsu world champion said she felt the defense solidified her status despite critics who claim she has not faced former titleholder Weili Zhang. Dern pointed to her run through Robertson and previous challenger Virna Jandiroba, both of whom entered their title shots on five-fight winning streaks. She said she does not need a Zhang win to prove legitimacy.<\/p>\n

Dern told reporters she plans to return around March for a second defense. She acknowledged the media obligations that followed her title win changed her routine, but said she is adjusting to the champion workload. Her team reviewed positional improvements in the locker room immediately after the fight.<\/p>\n

\ud83c\udf9f\ufe0f Get tickets: Buy tickets to UFC 330 on Ticketmaster \u2192<\/a><\/p>\n

The UFC has not announced Dern’s next opponent. She said she will be ready for whoever the promotion assigns.<\/p>\n

Reported via:<\/p>\n

MMA Mania<\/a> \u2014 Mackenzie Dern a bit disappointed with UFC 330<\/a> win: \u2018I could\u2019ve finished this fight for sure\u2019<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"This author receives a commission through recommended links in this content. See our affiliate disclosure. Mackenzie Dern defended…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":857670,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[570],"tags":[64,63,786,785,85],"class_list":["post-857669","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\/857669","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=857669"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/857669\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/857670"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=857669"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=857669"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=857669"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}