Nina Who? ‘Focused’ Dern ‘Ready For The Champion’

UFC strawweight submission specialist Mackenzie Dern, who’s on a mission to prove she can also throw hands, will make her return to the Octagon against venerable 115-pound veteran Nina Ansaroff at the upcoming UFC Vegas 23 mixed martial arts (MMA) event, going down this Sat. afternoon (April 10, 2021) on ABC from inside APEX in Las Vegas, Nevada.

But the way Dern is feeling, she may as well be fighting strawweight champion Weili Zhang.

“I feel like I’m ready for the champion and for the belt right now because that’s just how focused I am,” Dern told MMA Fighting. “Of course, getting a couple more fights is always good to get better, but focus wise, I could be there now. All I do right now is my kid, my baby, my husband, our life at home, and the gym. I’m just watching the fights all the time and I can’t even see myself in a different way. I’m just really, really focused and that’s not gonna change. I think people are gonna see how ready I am.”

Dern (10-1) suffered the first loss of her professional career at UFC Fight Night 161 but quickly regained her footing and rattled off three consecutive wins, including her unanimous decision victory over Virna Jandiroba at UFC 256. As for Ansaroff (10-6), she’s been out of action following her decision loss to Tatiana Suarez at UFC 238 back in June 2019, busy raising her newborn baby with partner and two-division champ Amanda Nunes.

“I definitely want to fight as many times as possible this year against [opponents] that will get me closer to the belt,” Dern continued. “The champ is fighting Rose (Namajunas), 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. I think if I can get this win, jump into the top-six, then I should get [another] top-five opponent next.”

Dern sits just outside the Top 10 at No. 11 but could quickly rise up the ranks by dispatching Ansaroff, holding steady at No. 5. The next few weeks will prove to be very busy for the strawweight division so a victory for either combatant may not align them with a future opponent until the 115-pound wheels are done turning.

To see who else is fighting at UFC Vegas 23 click here.