Just days after capturing the vacant UFC strawweight title at UFC 321, Mackenzie Dern is already eyeing a blockbuster first defense — potentially against former champion Zhang Weili.
Dern, who submitted Virna Jandiroba to claim gold in Abu Dhabi, said she wants to face the best contenders available. “I’m not gonna be a baby champion,” she told Ariel Helwani. “I wanna beat the best — and Weili makes sense. Even if she loses to Valentina [Shevchenko], her resume and win streak speak for themselves.”
The Brazilian jiu-jitsu ace, who became just the second ADCC and Jiu-Jitsu World Cup gold medalist to win a UFC title, also vowed to stay active: “If I keep training like this for months or years, imagine the beast I could become.”
