"I just want to keep doing that more"- Mackenzie Dern vows to keep grinding after winning title at UFC 321

Mackenzie Dern recently opened up about her next step following an impressive title-winning performance at UFC 321.

Dern faced Virna Jandiroba in a rematch for the vacant strawweight belt in the co-main event of UFC 321 this past Saturday at the Etihad Arena in Abu Dhabi. The 32-year-old Brazilian demonstrated her tenacity, becoming the new champion by unanimous decision.

In a recent appearance on The Ariel Helwani Show, Dern voiced her desire to be an active champion:

''Of course I'm like recovering right now. But I just feel weird not doing what I was doing the last like eight weeks. I just want to keep doing that more. I mean, obviously I've been training my whole life. So it's not that we just trained eight weeks and that's what made you a champion. But you know what mean? If I can get to the organization and everything I did for this camp and just keep it instead of like two weeks or two months, be six months, a whole year, three years. Imagine the type of beast I could become."

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Check out Mackenzie Dern's comments below:

Notably, in their first encounter at UFC 256 in 2020, Dern prevailed via unanimous decision. She and Jandiroba were given the opportunity to fight for UFC gold as Zhang Weili vacated her strawweight throne and moved up to face flyweight champion Valentina Shevchenko at UFC 322.

Dern was able to thwart Jandiroba's wrestling approach with her striking prowess at UFC 321, as the judges scored the matchup 48–47 X2, 49–46 in favor of her.

Mackenzie Dern discusses UFC analyst's thoughts about her title fight

For context, UFC analyst Din Thomas labeled Mackenzie Dern's title matchup against Virna Jandiroba at UFC 321 as insignificant.

In the aforementioned conversation with Ariel Helwani, Dern responded to Thomas' remarks:

''What do we in the [strawweight] division have to do with, you know. Like, people can't retire? People can't want to leave the [division] and go up a weight class? If there was a vacated belt, who else would fight for the belt? So, I don't understand what would be so insignificant about finding a champion. [Weili] could've just retired... and then what are they going to do? They're gonna keep the division open? They've got to have a champion, so I don't understand. How is any championship fight insignificant? So, it's just like crazy for me to hear."