Philadelphia — Saturday’s UFC 330 saw Mackenzie Dern make the first defense of her women’s strawweight championship, earning a decision win over Canadian challenger Gillian Robertson.
Despite that, there are those who feel that Dern will never truly be champ until she fights Weili Zhang. It was Dern who capitalized when Zhang vacated her title in a bid to dethrone Valentina Shevchenko and claim flyweight gold last year. Dern would go on to defeat Virna Jandiroba for the UFC’s 115lb title, while Zhang came up short in her quest for a belt in a second weight class.
Dern, however, already feels she’s a proper champion.
“I mean I felt like the champion before, when I won the belt, but I just think I solidified myself even more as the champ, for the fans,” Dern stated following UFC 330, speaking with media outlets including Cageside Press.
“I don’t think I need to win [against] Weili to be a champ. People retire— I’m not saying that’s what she’s going to do,” added Dern. “The more defenses I can get of this, whoever comes next, I think I proved that I’m the champ. Gillian was a five-fight win streak, Virna was a five-fight win streak. I just became a four-fight win streak, so it’s like, I don’t know how much more I need to do to prove that.”
Dern later told Cageside Press about how emotionally different her title win, and first defense, were.
“It was a night of excitement and happiness,” she said of her win over Robertson at UFC 330. “It wasn’t like a night of relief. I think that the relief that I got when I won that belt, that was crying and emotion. This one was excitement and happiness, because we defended it.”
The length of time between Dern’s title fight win and her first defense has been commented on frequently, though it’s worth noting a planned fight with Weili Zhang at the White House in June didn’t work out. Still, Dern is hoping to stay busy. And maybe get on a bigger card.
“If the opportunity does come up, we’ll be ready to take a fight any time. And also I know Dana [White]’s been talking about a big event; I wasn’t on the Sphere, we weren’t able to make it on the White House, so I don’t know when this next big event is if it does happen, but I would like to get on that one.”
Dana White has been teasing a bigger event again, perhaps not as big as the UFC’s White House card, but in the same vein as that and Noche UFC at The Sphere in Las Vegas. Details on what that event is have yet to be announced.
Watch the full UFC 330 post-fight press conference with Mackenzie Dern above.
