{"id":235894,"date":"2025-10-24T02:45:13","date_gmt":"2025-10-24T02:45:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/235894\/"},"modified":"2025-10-24T02:45:13","modified_gmt":"2025-10-24T02:45:13","slug":"din-thomas-blasts-ufc-321-co-main-as-insignificant","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/235894\/","title":{"rendered":"Din Thomas blasts UFC 321 co-main as \u201cinsignificant\u201d"},"content":{"rendered":"

At UFC 321<\/a>, which goes down this Saturday (Oct. 25, 2025) inside Etihad Arena on \u201cFight Island\u201d in Abu Dhabi, No. 1-ranked<\/a> Virna Jandiroba will take on fan-favorite No. 5-ranked<\/a> Mackenzie Dern for the vacant Strawweight title.<\/p>\n

While most would assume a UFC world title fight automatically brings excitement, Thomas, who is frequently on UFC broadcasts<\/a>, isn\u2019t buying it.<\/p>\n

\u201cI mean this with all due respect,\u201d Thomas told Anthony Smith on his \u201cOn Paper\u201d<\/a> podcast. \u201cI\u2019m trying to be as respectful, but has there ever been a more insignificant title fight in the history \u2013 not, maybe, in the history, but in the last recent memory? You get where I\u2019m coming from, right? No one seems to even care or have batted an eye at this fight.\u201d<\/p>\n

Thomas and Smith both explained their reasoning, saying the matchup feels hollow because former champion Zhang Weili voluntarily vacated her belt<\/a> to chase a second title in another division. In their eyes, the winner of Dern vs. Jandiroba will be holding a belt that Zhang likely reclaims the moment she comes back.<\/p>\n

Dern, of course, has drawn criticism from fans and fighters alike for earning a title shot despite being 2-2 in her last four fights<\/a>. Many believe she\u2019s been pushed because she\u2019s a recognizable name with crossover appeal \u2014 not necessarily because she\u2019s the most deserving contender.<\/p>\n

Still, Thomas believes the Brazilian jiu-jitsu ace has the skills to finally fulfill her potential \u2014 if she takes the fight seriously.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf you look at some of Mackenzie\u2019s performances, part of me thinks that she has a little Kevin Holland thing going on where she just hasn\u2019t reached her potential,\u201d Thomas said \u201cShe punches as hard as anybody in the division, she grapples as well as anybody in the division, she\u2019s got gas for days, she doesn\u2019t get tired\u2026It\u2019s just sometimes, she doesn\u2019t seem like she even cares about fighting.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve spoke to her on the desk, and she was like, \u2018Oh, I didn\u2019t really know how to shoot takedowns with punches,\u2019 and she was already a professional and didn\u2019t know these things, and I\u2019m thinking, how did you make it so far?\u201d Thomas concluded. \u201cShe\u2019s really good on the ground, she\u2019s very athletic, and she\u2019s born for this. She\u2019s been in combat her entire life. I feel as though, if she takes it seriously, I think she should win this fight pretty handily.\u201d<\/p>\n

Whether or not the fight feels \u201cinsignificant,\u201d the opportunity in front of Dern is massive. A win over Jandiroba would make her the new UFC Strawweight champion and could set up a blockbuster unification bout with Zhang Weili down the line.<\/p>\n

Remember that MMAmania.com<\/a> will deliver LIVE round-by-round, blow-by-blow coverage of the entire UFC 321 fight card<\/a>, starting with the ESPN+\/Disney+\/FX<\/a> \u201cPrelims\u201d matches online, which are scheduled to begin at 10 a.m. ET, before the main card start time at 2 p.m. ET (also on ESPN+<\/a>).<\/p>\n

To checkout the latest and greatest UFC 321: \u201cAspinall vs. Gane\u201d news and notes be sure to hit up our comprehensive event archive right here.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"At UFC 321, which goes down this Saturday (Oct. 25, 2025) inside Etihad Arena on \u201cFight Island\u201d in…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":235895,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[444],"tags":[109793,49,48,641,33601,638,109794,82,109474,702,8729,3194],"class_list":["post-235894","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-mma","tag-aspinall-vs-gane-start-time","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-fighting","tag-latest-ufc-mma-news","tag-mma","tag-preview-and-live-results","tag-sports","tag-ufc-321-fight-card","tag-ufc-news","tag-ufc-previews","tag-videos"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/235894","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=235894"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/235894\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/235895"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=235894"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=235894"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=235894"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}