The vacant UFC strawweight title is up for grabs on Oct. 25 when Mackenzie Dern and Virna Jandiroba rematch at UFC 321 in Abu Dhabi following Zhang Weili’s determination to relinquish her belt and as a substitute pursue two-division glory towards UFC ladies’s flyweight champion Valentina Shevchenko.
The chance is a very long time coming for Dern, who lastly will get her first UFC title shot after kicking off her MMA profession almost a decade in the past as a adorned jiu-jitsu prodigy.
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A Zhang vs. Shevchenko flyweight superfight had been speculated for months, relationship again to every’s newest title defenses in February and Might, respectively. So for Dern, the massive query previous to UFC’s announcement was whether or not she’d compete for the undisputed strap or an interim belt. And finally, as she revealed Tuesday on Uncrowned’s “The Ariel Helwani Present,” Dern realized her reply alongside the remainder of the world.
“[UFC] have been sort of speaking in regards to the interim belt, and that was perhaps three weeks in the past, 4 weeks in the past,” Dern stated. “They have been speaking about it, however weren’t positive in the event that they have been going to do it. Then [we found out], ‘OK, they will do it, [so] we’ll wait till they announce it.’ After which I came upon by Instagram that it was going to be for the precise belt when [UFC] Dana [White] introduced it.
“I texted [my manager] Tiki [Ghosn], ‘Wait, is it the actual belt or the interim belt?’ [He said,] ‘Oh, it is the actual belt.’ In order that was very current, the change. We have been proud of the interim belt — it is nonetheless a belt and can be the subsequent step to getting the [undisputed] belt. However the truth that it is for the actual belt undoubtedly places an additional happiness and gratefulness on it.”
Zhang’s departure from the division leaves a void atop 115 kilos that hasn’t been felt for the reason that UFC strawweight title’s inception in 2014. Within the 11 years since Carla Esparza and Rose Namajunas collided for the inaugural belt, each strawweight title bout has concerned a champion defending their strap.
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The truth that Zhang will not be given the possibility to develop into a two-division simultaneous champion was arguably the largest shock of the announcement. Dern, nevertheless, did not discover all of it too stunning.
Relying on the result of the now-former champ’s flyweight return towards Shevchenko, Dern would gladly welcome Zhang again to strawweight if she turns into a champion at UFC 321.
“I do know Weili — if she ever needs to come back again down, she’ll combat whoever has the belt subsequent,” Dern stated.
“I believe relying on how her combat with Valentina [goes], if it might be something like Alexa [Grasso] and Valentina, a trilogy and all these things, I believe it simply sort of is sensible for the division [to vacate]. She was so dominant within the strawweight division. Everybody they have been throwing at her, she was simply beating. Even when she needs to come back again after this one combat with Valentina, I believe that it might make sense.”
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Dern, 32, enters UFC 321’s co-main occasion driving her first win streak since her preliminary bout with Jandiroba in late 2020. The submission aces battled to a aggressive unanimous determination on that night time, which Dern received to increase a four-fight win streak that also stands as her finest run within the UFC up to now. Jandiroba, 37, has since rebounded to win 5 straight fights of her personal and earn a much-coveted shot at redemption.
But whatever the enhancements and adjustments they’ve remodeled the previous 5 years, Dern is assured she will be able to repeat the identical end result she secured at UFC 256.
“There is no doubt in my thoughts that I can not do it,” she stated of beating Jandiroba once more. “I do know I can do it as a result of it has been accomplished earlier than. So the one query is that if I can do it once more, and might I [be] higher targeted on me getting higher [for the rematch]? I do know, for positive, she’s going to deliver new stuff. Her workforce’s going to deliver new stuff to the desk. So I’ve simply received to be ready for that and combating principally a distinct Virna — though we each know our strengths are grappling, however we’re each completely completely different fighters.
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“I watched my combat along with her final time and I used to be like, ‘Man, I used to be so petite.’ I did not actually have any muscle. I used to be simply sort of very girly-girl, and I am far more athletic now and simply in a position to develop the muscle and get a far more mature, athletic physique to combat for the championship now.”
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