UFC strawweight division has a new addition in their rankings as multiple time Brazilian Jiu-jitsu gold medalist Mackenzie Dern paved her way into the rankings in just two fights with the organization.
Normally the contenders are the ones who think about the possibility of fighting the champion in near future. However, strawweight champion Rose Namajunas has always been a stereotype breaker. Scouring through the line of contenders in the UFC’s strawweight division, Dern’s name caught the champion’s attention.
During her recent guest appearance on the UFC Unfiltered Podcast, Namajunas talked a little bit more about the possibility of fighting Dern sometime in the near future.
“Other than the weight issue, I thought she looked great,” Namajunas said. “That is something, I’ve always wanted to test my jiu-jitsu against, that would be awesome, I would like to face her. But, she just has to get her sh-t together and that may be down the road.”
“She beat Gabi Garcia in a jiu-jitsu match, so that would be awesome,” Rose continued. “And she can obviously strike a little bit. She has that heavy first step, that a wrestler has sometimes that good right hand.”
“You can tell she has that style developing. So it will be interesting to see if she can fix her issues and maybe she can be a future contender.”
Namajunas is a black belt in Taekwondo and Karate. She won her title by a brutal left hook knocking out dominant champion Joanna Jedrzejczyk in the first round at UFC 217 in November 2017. A lot of people thought it was a fluke. She then rematched Jedrzejczyk at UFC 223 in April and grinded out a unanimous decision victory over former Muay Thai champion Jedrzejczyk.
However, most of the victories of Jedrzejczyk’s career have been by the way of submission. She has a brown belt in Brazilian Jiu-jitsu as well. Dern however has a long way to be considered for title contention. The next in the line for the title seems #2 ranked strawweight Jessica Andrade.
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