RESOLVING THE LEDGER
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Mackenzie Dern and Gillian Robertson will meet at UFC
330. Editor’s note: The views and opinions expressed below are those
of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of
Sherdog.com, its affiliates and sponsors or its parent company,
Evolve Media.
* * *
As UFC
330 approaches, there’s a unique dichotomy between the two
title fights on the card. One features a champion whose bona fides
in the division are questionable, with the question being whether
he obtained the title due to a favorable matchup after abandoning
the stranglehold he had on his previous division. On the flip side,
the other champion only claimed the championship after the previous
dominant champion left to pursue glory a division up. We’re getting
the champion whose greatest glory came in a different division and
the champion who can only make that claim because someone else
abandoned the division.
While there’s no doubt Islam
Makhachev is an all-time great, there are still a lot of
questions regarding Mackenzie
Dern . Makhachev is tied for the longest winning streak in
Ultimate Fighting Championship history and broke the
lightweight division record for title defenses before jumping to
welterweight, not to mention four wins over three former champions
— totals that jump to five and four if we include interim
champions. By comparison, Dern’s winning streak presently sits at
three, she doesn’t have a successful title defense yet and she has
zero wins over former champions, something that tends to be a
rarity for reigning titleholders. Weili Zhang’s shadow hangs over Mackenzie Dern’s UFC 330 title
defense against Gillian Robertson
Despite being the proud owner of an official UFC title belt, Dern
doesn’t give off a championship vibe. It isn’t entirely her fault.
She did what she was supposed to do when she defeated Virna
Jandiroba to claim the vacant title, but it was a vacant title.
Not taking the belt from the dominant Weili Zhang
hurts the legitimacy of her claim to being the best strawweight on
the planet. Regardless of whether she’s the official champion, she
didn’t beat the woman who was previously considered the best
strawweight in the world. Even worse for Dern, Zhang looms over the
division after coming up short in her attempt at 125 pounds,
leaving a very real possibility that she returns to the division
she formerly ruled.
Beating whoever is put in front of her is what Dern is supposed to
do, but even those victories appear to have asterisks. The first
win in her streak was over Lupita
Godinez , someone considered to have one of the worst fight IQs
in the sport. As talented as Godinez is, she opted to go to the
ground with Dern on multiple occasions despite Dern being one of
the most credentialed and talented Brazilian jiu-jitsu
practitioners on the planet. It was a quality win, but one that
could be argued was gift-wrapped to her. The second win came over
Amanda
Ribas , someone currently on a three-fight losing streak and
struggling with medical issues. It doesn’t carry the weight it once
did. And while Jandiroba is a quality win, Dern is also a nightmare
stylistic matchup for her, as Dern’s grappling negates Jandiroba’s
own ground game, her greatest advantage over most opponents.
However, there are other things that were in Dern’s control. Prior
to her current three-fight winning streak, she lost four of her
previous six contests. She has fought three other women who
challenged Zhang for the title, only to be definitively turned away
by Jessica
Andrade , Amanda
Lemos and Yan Xiaonan. The fact that none of those three
provided much of a threat to Zhang offered some justification to
those who believed Zhang had cleaned house before vacating the
title. After all, if the best available title challengers she
hadn’t faced were losing to opponents she had thoroughly thumped,
didn’t it make sense to seek new challenges? Gillian Robertson gives Mackenzie Dern a chance to strengthen
her claim as UFC strawweight champion
There’s no doubt Dern benefits from her marketability. One of the
more recognizable members of the roster, the UFC has given Dern
every opportunity to find success. It could be argued the promotion
is still doing that. As she prepares to defend against Gillian
Robertson this weekend, many believe there are bigger
challenges out there for her beyond Zhang. Tatiana
Suarez has won two in a row since falling to Zhang at the
beginning of 2025. The win that earned Robertson the title shot?
Amanda
Lemos — the same person Suarez defeated in September of last
year. Given that Dern has struggled with physicality and Suarez may
be the most physically imposing member of the division, is the UFC
attempting to protect its champion?
I can’t say definitively that is the case, but I do believe it’s a
fair argument. The case against it is that Robertson has won five
consecutive fights, the longest active streak in the UFC women’s
strawweight division. While there’s no denying Robertson is a more
favorable stylistic matchup for Dern, her winning streak needs to
count for something, and she hasn’t had her crack at the title yet.
Suarez has. Then again, two things can be true at the same
time.
Regardless of why Robertson got the shot, the fact that she
represents such a favorable matchup for Dern isn’t going to do much
to bolster the legitimacy of the champion’s reign. Beating someone
who presents a unique challenge — such as Suarez — would go a long
way toward legitimizing it. Beating the former champion — such as
Zhang — would do even more. Beating someone who many believe was
simply in the right place at the right time to get this
opportunity? Yeah, there isn’t going to be much belief that Dern
has done enough to convince the world she’s truly the best
strawweight on the planet.
That isn’t to say Dern is incapable of doing anything to change the
narrative this weekend. If she can completely dominate Robertson i...
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