UFC Strawweight Champion “Thug” Rose Namajunas is open to a fight against Mackenzie Dern once the IBJJF Champion gets “her s**t together.”
“I thought, other than the weight issues, I thought she looked great,” Rose told UFC Unfiltered. “That is something…I’ve always wanted to test my jiu-jitsu against…um, that’s why…that would be awesome. But you know, she just got to get her s**t together and maybe that might be down the road. She beat Gabi Garcia in a jiu-jitsu match, so that would be awesome. 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 was obviously referring to Dern’s massive weight fail at UFC 224, where Mackenzie weighed in 7 pounds over. Her missed weight forced her to give up 30 percent of her earnings to her opponent, Amanda Cooper.
Despite her embarrassing weight problems, Dern won the bout handily, tapping Cooper out via rear naked choke in the very first round.
Mackenzie Dern is still undefeated in mixed martial arts, and over half of her seven wins have come by way of submission.
But she has yet to take on a top ten fighter, so it will no doubt be at least two or three fights before the UFC even begins to seriously consider a fight between her and the reigning champion, whomever that may be down the road.
Furthermore, Mackenzie Dern will not doubt have to show the UFC that she can make weight. If she hasn’t already, Dern would be wise to get herself a nutritionist.
