“I think it’s gonna be hard to take her off the throne right now,” says Mackenzie Dern about Zhang Weili as she predicts UFC 261

“I think it’s gonna be hard to take her off the throne right now,” says Mackenzie Dern about Zhang Weili as she predicts UFC 261

Mackenzie Dern will be paying attention to the Zhang Weili vs Rose Namajunas fight that goes down at UFC 261 tomorrow. Dern feels like Rose Namajunas will not be the one to bring down Zhang from her throne. The UFC 261 sees UFC women’s strawweight contender Rose Namajunas take on the champion Weili Zhang.

The bout will take place in the co-main event of the main card at the sold-out arena of VyStar Veterans Memorial Arena in Jacksonville, Florida. This will be the first event after the pandemic to have a sold-out audience. Mackenzie Dern recently made her way through the top five ranks of the strawweight division after beating Nina Nunes.

Mackenzie Dern vs Nina Nunes
Mackenzie Dern vs Nina Nunes

Mackenzie Dern on her recent appearance on What the Heck podcast told MMA Fighting what she feels about the fight happening tomorrow. “I think Zhang will win. I think it will be a really good fight. I know Rose has submissions and I haven’t seen Zhang do a lot jiu-jitsu wise,” Dern said on the podcast.

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Mackenzie Dern will fight as many opponents to get closer to the belt

Mackenzie Dern
Mackenzie Dern

Mackenzie Dern continued to break down the bout between Rose and Zhang and said, “Me, watching her, I think to myself, if I ever fight her it would be a jiu-jitsu [heavy game plan]. I know Rose can get some flying armbars, flying triangles, I saw her working on her heel hooks and things like that. But the champ, she’s focused, too. She’s prepared for anyone, anytime. So I think it’s gonna be hard to take her off the throne right now.”

Though Dern has her eyes on the prize, she is looking to fight as many fights as possible. “I definitely want to fight as many times as possible this year against [opponents] that will get me closer to the belt,” Dern said.

“The champ is fighting Rose, Yan (Xiaonan) is fighting Carla Esparza so there’s a lot of things that are gonna be moving around in the top-four, top-five in the next few weeks. I don’t know about Joanna (Jedrzejczyk), if she has a fight but we’ll see what happens,” Mackenzie Dern ended.

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