Rumored for some time, a women’s strawweight title fight between Virna Jandiroba and Mackenzie Dern has been officially announced for October’s UFC 321.
With Weili Zhang vacating her 115lb championship to challenge Valentina Shevchenko for flyweight gold, Jandiroba (22-3) will take on Dern (15-5) for the vacant UFC women’s strawweight championship at the event in Abu Dhani, UAE on October 25, 2025.
UFC President and CEO Dana White announced the title fight on Thursday evening. The fight will serve as the UFC 321 co-main event.
Jandiroba is ranked #1 in the 115lb weight class, while Dern sits in the #5 spot. Brazil’s Jandiroba, a former Invicta FC champ, has notched wins over former title challengers Amanda Lemos and Yan Xiaonan among others during her current five-fight win streak.
As for Dern, the decorated jiu-jitsu star has won back-to-back fights against Loopy Godinez and Amanda Ribas.
October 25’s UFC 321 takes place at the Etihad Arena in Abu Dhabi with the following match-ups reported for the event thus far:
- Tom Aspinall (c) vs. Ciryl Gane — for the UFC heavyweight championship
- Virna Jandiroba vs. Mackenzie Dern — for the vacant UFC women’s strawweight championship
- Alexander Volkov vs. Jailton Almeida
- Aleksandar Rakić vs. Azamat Murzakanov
- Hamdy Abdelwahab vs. Chris Barnett
- Ikram Aliskerov vs. Park Jun-yong
- Azat Maksum vs. Mitch Raposo
- Jaqueline Amorim vs. Mizuki Inoue
- Abdul-Kareem Al-Selwady vs. Matheus Camilo
- Umar Nurmagomedov vs. Mario Bautista
