Midnight Mania! Dern Returns Against Jandiroba At UFC 256

Photo by Chris Unger/Zuffa LLC via Getty Images

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Welcome to Midnight Mania!

Per a report from ESPN, top women’s Strawweight prospect Mackenzie Dern is being targeted to face former Invicta FC champ Virna Jandiroba at UFC 256 on December 12. Though the two have verbally agreed to fight, though contracts are yet to be signed, and there is still no official event location.

Dern is one of the most decorated grapplers in UFC history. A multiple-time gold medalist in pretty much every jiu-jitsu competition that means anything. Though she lost a bit of momentum when she suffered her first defeat to Amanda Ribas — who has turned out to be really good! — Dern returned in a big way, submitting both Hannah Cifers and Randa Markos in 2020 (HIGHLIGHTS!).

It’s a considerable step up in competition for the prospect.

Jandiroba is an ace grappler in her own right, a jiu-jitsu black belt with 13 submission wins. Most recently, Jandiroba ran through Felice Herrig, scoring a quick submission (HIGHLIGHTS!). “Carcara” has nearly twice the professional experience of Dern with an impressive record of 16-1.

Who ya’ got?!?

Insomnia

Cory Sandhagen is tough as hell, and tomorrow night’s main event is going to be awesome.

It doesn’t appear Mike Perry is ready to bury the hatchet with Darren Till (nor let him into the corner).

He’s okay.

The stats show that tomorrow night’s co-main event between Edson Barboza and Makwan Amirkhani is an extreme example of striker vs. grappler.

David doesn’t always win.

It will be an exciting day if Jon Jones and Israel Adesanya ever fight somewhere other than Twitter.

Slips, rips, and KO clips

I love this weird inside shoulder lock finish, because it emphasizes one of my favorite BJJ philosophies: if you have an opportunity to bend the arm in a strange direction, do it! The details matter less than the extension.

“Muay Thai kill anything!” — including forearms!

I’ve written this before, but I believe catching and countering kicks is one of the areas that will someday see great advancement in MMA. In support of my hypothesis, here’s One Championship’s Strawweight kingpin Sam-A doing it a half-dozen times while wearing 4 oz. gloves!

Random Land

A neat means of transportation:

Midnight Music: I listened to a Spotify playlist entitled “Legendary,” which was a solid mix of classic songs mostly from the late ‘60s and early ‘70s.

Sleep well Maniacs! More martial arts madness is always on the way.