MMA star Mackenzie Dern has never been shy about acknowledging her weaknesses, and ahead of her UFC strawweight vacant title match against Virna Jandiroba, the Brazilian jiu-jitsu phenom is addressing a fundamental flaw in her MMA approach that stems from her grappling background.
In a recent interview with Full Send MMA, Dern candidly discussed a habit that has plagued her throughout her UFC career: willingly accepting takedowns due to her elite ground game confidence.
“I’ve always kind of had this problem where I accept the takedown sometimes,”
Dern admitted.
“Even my coach is like, ‘Let’s not stay on the bottom.’ You know, even though I’m super comfortable on it.”
For an MMA star with Dern‘s world-class jiu-jitsu credentials, the mentality makes sense on paper. She’s comfortable working from her back, threatening submissions and sweeps with minimal time needed to create opportunities. However, in MMA, this approach carries significant risks.
“Sometimes you could meet a really strong person, you know, someone strong and just have good pressure, and you can’t move, and then there’s a round that you kind of gave away for accepting the takedown,”
she explained.
This revelation offers insight into some of Dern‘s previous setbacks against top competition. Her losses to Marina Rodriguez, Amanda Lemos, and Yan Xiaonan all came at critical junctures where a victory would have earned her a chance at the title. The question entering her championship match is whether she’s finally corrected this tendency.
Against Jandiroba, another high-level grappler, Dern‘s game plan focuses on dictating the terms of engagement.
“I think just staying calm and patient, you know. Of course, I’m going to be pressuring the whole time because I feel like to be a champion, you need to at least show that you want to pressure this fight,”
she said.
“You can kind of see her takedowns coming in. She doesn’t throw too much on the punches. So, you know, I feel like just staying ahead by seeing everything. If I can see it, I think I can stuff it.”
The stylistic matchup presents Dern with an opportunity to showcase her evolution as an MMA star. Rather than relying solely on her jiu-jitsu ace card, she’s committed to controlling where the match takes place—a champion’s mindset. Whether this strategic adjustment proves successful will be answered when she faces Jandiroba for the vacant strawweight title this Saturday in Abu Dhabi.
