After becoming champ at UFC 321, what’s next for Mackenzie Dern?

This past Saturday in the co-main event of UFC 321, the vacant strawweight title was on the line. Mackenzie Dern (16-5) and Virna Jandiroba (22-4) were fighting for the second time and this time, gold was on the line.

These two first fought back in 2020 with Dern winning a unanimous decision. Since then, Jandiroba had gone on an incredible run winning five in a row to earn the shot on Saturday. Meanwhile, Dern had more of a mixed bag of results, but she had won two straight entering Saturday.

In the first round, Dern did a sensational job of showing off her striking. She was beating Jandiroba to the punch and her speed advantage was clear in the first round. In the second round, Jandiroba did a better job of mixing things up and had some ground control so I gave the second round to her.

While the final three rounds were close, Jandiroba didn’t do nearly enough. Dern was better and sharper on the feet and it appeared that Jandiroba was afraid of being on the ground with Dern. The few times we saw Jandiroba get takedowns, she backed off and let Dern back up where Dern had the advantage.

I thought all the rounds were pretty competitive, but I think that there was a clear winner at UFC 321. In the end, all three judges got this one right and Mackenzie Dern won a unanimous decision and became the strawweight champion.

What’s next after UFC 321?

I think that there is a pretty clear next challenger in the strawweight division and that next challenger is Tatiana Suarez. Suarez was undefeated and got her shot against Zhang Weili earlier this year for the title and after a good first round, she was dominated the rest of the fight.

She’s still one of the top two contenders in the division and she bounced back well with a decision win in her last fight. I think the matchup between Dern and Suarez is incredibly compelling especially after what we saw at UFC 321.

Mackenzie Dern’s striking continues to improve and I would expect her to have the striking advantage against Suarez in their fight. Suarez is incredibly strong with dominant wrestling, but Dern has arguably the best guard in the division. It’s a compelling matchup and I’m assuming we will see it happen on one of the first Paramount cards next year.