This past Saturday at UFC Abu Dhabi, we saw a big matchup in the strawweight division. Top contenders battled it out as Mackenzie Dern (14-5) was looking to get back on track as she took on Loopy Godinez (12-5). Both fighters needed a win coming off recent losses.
Dern had lost two fights in a row to Jessica Andrade and Amanda Lemos while Godinez was coming off a loss to Virna Jandiroba. That loss to Jandiroba had snapped a four-fight win streak for Godinez. Entering the fight, I actually really liked Loopy Godinez in this spot.
Mackenzie Dern is always a question mark to me. We know that she has elite jiu jitsu and at times, she’s shown such great improvement in her striking. However, out of no where she’ll regress and her striking will look awful. Her last two fights against Lemos and Andrade didn’t instill confidence in her striking. For that, I picked against her on Saturday.
However, she looked very sharp at UFC Abu Dhabi. Not perfect and definitely had some holes in her game, but her pressure was nice and she landed some really sharp combinations. In addition, she was able to get some timely takedowns and had some control.
The first two rounds were split so it all came down to the third. While Godinez had moments, I felt like the pressure and volume of Dern won out. The judges agreed and gave her the decision win.
What’s next after UFC Abu Dhabi?
This was a huge win for Dern to ensure that she didn’t lose three fights in a row. Dern looked like a world-beater in 2021 winning four fights in a row including three submissions. However entering Saturday, she was just 2-4 in her previous six fights. She needed a good win to show that she’s still a top contender at 115.
Now that she’s back on the winning path, what should the UFC do with her next? Well, there are a few options. If you want to pair her against someone close to her in the rankings, I like the idea of a rematch with Amanda Ribas. Ribas is ranked seventh currently with Dern ranked eighth. Ribas is also ranked tenth at flyweight and is coming off a competitive loss against Rose Namajunas earlier this year.
Ribas was the first fighter to defeat Dern in her professional career. It’s been about five years since their first fight, so I could definitely see the UFC running this one back and given their booking lately, I wouldn’t be shocked to see this fight come together as an APEX main event.
A wild card option could be Yan Xiaonan especially if the UFC wants to push Dern up towards the top right away. Yan hasn’t fought since losing her title shot against Zhang Weili. I don’t see this being a reasonable next fight considering the fact that Yan is ranked second in the division, but she’s not currently booked and is coming off a loss. Perhaps this could be an option. That said, if I was to put money on it, I’d say it’s going to be a rematch with Ribas.