'Jiu-jitsu is my job,' but highly touted Mackenzie Dern planning a 2017 UFC debut

Mackenzie Dern’s MMA transition has been, understandably, met with a general sense of excitement.

After all, it’s not every day that a 23-year-old Brazilian jiu-jitsu black belt waltzes onto the scene with such praise and respect, as well as a list of grappling accomplishments so impressive that simply calling her an “ace” just doesn’t quite cut it.

Two wins, including an intricate “Submission of the Year” candidate later (watch it above), Dern’s MMA path is certainly off to a good start. But, as far as she can tell, that’s just what this is: a start. While aware – and even appreciative – of the high expectations around her, Dern has been careful not to place them upon herself.

“Honestly, I know that sooner or later people who have those expectations are going to be disappointed,” Dern told MMAjunkie. “Because I know that one day I’m not going to have a good performance. Maybe I won’t be able to submit the next fight. Who knows? For me, it’s way more normal. In my head, I’m prepared. I know I only have two MMA fights. I know that I’m new at this. I know that sometimes you can’t submit.

“I think it’s going to teach (people who follow my career) to be patient and to see that you have good days and you have bad days. Of course, I don’t want that to happen. I’m training as hard as I can. I’m trying my best to live up to the expectations. I’m trying to be the best I can and to represent everyone. I appreciate their support, but I don’t feel the pressure from anyone.

“I know where I am. I know I’m at the beginning of my career, and so many things can happen.”

Dern’s (2-0) patience, however, doesn’t take away from her ambition. While a beginner when it comes to the cage, with wins over Kenia Rosas (0-1) and Montana Stewart (5-3), the grappling phenomenon already envisions a UFC future – an interest that, she said, is retributed.

Mackenzie Dern

A lifelong competitor, Dern obviously wants to test herself against MMA’s best. She just wants to make sure that when that happens, she’s able to include herself in that category too.

“The UFC talked to us already,” Dern said. “My team and my coaches, we talked with them, and we definitely want to – I want to be there. I’m hoping in 2017 I’ll be there. But I don’t want to get just thrown into the shark tank. I want to go in there being a shark. I don’t want to be the fish for the sharks.

“I respect all the girls there, and I know they’re at the highest level. It’s not jiu-jitsu. It’s a different sport. And I know that jiu-jitsu can help me for so long, but I know that sooner or later, I’ll have to be ready to take them down or something like that. So we’re just taking our time. I hope in 2017 I can be in the UFC. We’re just being patient and trying to get better as fast as possible. And while I’m doing that, I’m just enjoying the process.”

‘I felt like I was going to die’

Although enjoyable, the process hasn’t been easy. Dern’s first sparring session at The MMA Lab, where she trains alongside former UFC champion and current Bellator contender Benson Henderson, as well as UFC’s Lauren Murphy and Jocelyn Jones-Lybarger, only came around six weeks before her Legacy FC 58 debut.

As if the getting-hit-in-the-face part wasn’t nerve-wrecking enough, she recalls having cameras following her around to document every step of the transition process. While she managed to come out unharmed of the experience, it was certainly an eye-opener:

“I did OK, but I gassed out so fast – I got so tired,” Dern said. “I was like, ‘I can do 10 rounds of jiu-jitsu no problem.’ But then I did one round of five minutes in the cage, and I was dying, I was so tired.

“ … But so far, thankfully, I haven’t had any serious injuries. I haven’t got knocked out yet. The worst I had was a punch to the stomach, to the liver, that hurt so bad. I felt like I couldn’t breathe. But I think that was the biggest experience. It was good to see I could do this. I survived.”

Natural bumps and bruises aside, Dern said the transition has generally been a smooth one, which has a lot to do with just how well her habitual grappling style translated to the new sport.

“I’m still trying to find myself in MMA,” Dern said. “But my style in jiu-jitsu is very aggressive already, so that part was pretty easy. Even though in my first fight I didn’t submit the girl, I attacked with a kneebar, toehold, choke, armbar. I attacked with almost everything you can think of. Even Benson Henderson said in an interview that he thinks my jiu-jitsu transitions very well to MMA.

“MMA fighters who don’t really have a good jiu-jitsu background – for them it’s easy to kind of just hold. f they have wrestling, they can just kind of hold and take the space. But if you have really good angles and are aggressive, sooner or later they’re going to fall into a submission.

“They can defend one or two, but it’s harder when the person is attacking like 10 different submissions all over the place. I think that’s really my style, and I think that’s why people are really going to like my fights – hopefully.”

‘As long as I can’t live just off of MMA, I’ll keep doing jiu-jitsu’

While rightfully confident in her No. 1-ranked jiu-jitsu, Dern still works hard to keep it at its highest level. And that’s one of the reasons why she remains active in jiu-jitsu competition. The busy itinerary, she said, has its downsides; having missed weight by two-and-a-half pounds prior to her last fight, she points out the difficulties of dieting while jumping from one plane to the other.

But, even if she was ready to drive her focus solely to MMA, Dern is like any other newcomer when it comes to its financial rewards.

“When you do (jiu-jitsu) competitions, it’s different than when you train just to train,” Dern said. “You have to be at a different level, especially at black belt, so that helps me still with my MMA. It’s hard for sure to be competing. I think the hardest thing is the weight. Because when you travel, on the airplane, you got to all these different places, and (you have) to keep the diet and cook your own food and have no salt. That’s the hardest part so far for me.

Mackenzie Dern

“I think for all athletes in the beginning, it’s hard to live off of MMA. It’s no different for me. I’m still not at the phase where I can live just off of it. People think that doing jiu-jitsu is just for fun, but jiu-jitsu is my job. A lot of people that do MMA, they do part-time jobs, but jiu-jitsu is my job. I think that as long as I can’t live just off of MMA, I’ll keep doing jiu-jitsu.”

In any case, it’s not like she’s anywhere past her grappling prime. Quite the contrary.  After a golden 2015, which included titles at Abu Dhabi Combat Club Submission Wrestling World Championship (132 pounds) and the World Jiu-Jitsu Championship (130 pounds), Dern said her jiu-jitsu is at its “best moment” right now.

Then why trade a comfortable, stablished career to start a new one from scratch? Well, apparently comfortable is not really Dern’s thing.

“I like to learn and to feel like I’m getting better,” Dern said. “Of course I’m always getting better and I’m learning, but (in jiu-jitsu) it was a little bit of the same. Like, ‘OK, I’m not growing so much. I’m growing, but very little.’ So for me to go into MMA now, I feel it’s the perfect time. My jiu-jitsu is at its best moment right now. I’m the tightest I could be with all my positions, timing, reactions and everything.

“I didn’t slow down my jiu-jitsu, but I still feel that I’m learning so much in MMA. And it’s good to have that feeling back. That’s what motivates me – to go in there one day and have my coach show me something and seeing it works when I try it at sparring the next day. Of course in jiu-jitsu, we have new girls coming to the back belt all the time, and it’s growing. That’s why I still love to compete. But I wanted to learn again, to feel myself getting better, becoming a better athlete.”

Proudly waving the jiu-jitsu flag

Honoring jiu-jitsu, which has been in her life since she was a toddler and accompanying her father (well-known jiu-jitsu master Wellington “Megaton” Dias) to the mats, is not something she takes lightly. As she watches her fanbase expand, she hopes to keep opening doors for her martial art and the women behind it.

That’s why the buzz around her last finish – an omoplata/rear-naked choke combo that she said is not that unusual in jiu-jitsu – meant so much to her.

“I didn’t expect (the submission) to get so much attention,” she said. “But when I see that a lot of MMA fans like this jiu-jitsu, just to see people kind of comparing it a little bit to Demian Maia – man, I’m such a huge fan of him. And to be able to represent jiu-jitsu and just have people see it like this beautiful thing in MMA, to see that MMA fans, they don’t think, ‘Oh, jiu-jitsu is so boring.’ To see that they appreciate it, I’m really happy to get people to see the good side of jiu-jitsu and that it can be effective in MMA.

“I think the MMA world is the perfect place to help people be more aware of jiu-jitsu, and female sports and female athletes. So I’m happy, and I really hope that I help get more people excited about women’s jiu-jitsu and jiu-jitsu in general. To be compared to Demian Maia and Ronda Rousey – I’m so honored. What Ronda did for women in MMA and what Demian did for jiu-jitsu, if I could get the best of both worlds, that’s awesome.”

If everything goes according to plan, we’ll see Mackenzie Dern step onto the cage once more this year; she eyes a still-unconfirmed spot at Legacy FC 63 on Dec. 2.

As for plans a little further along? She hopes the eyeballs that she drew with her early steps get to witness her high aspirations materializing.

“People are being able to see my jiu-jitsu, and it’s really cool that people can see me grow as an MMA fighter,” Dern said. “I hope that these fans that are with me now, from my very first MMA fight, I hope they can follow me all the way until I win the belt.”

For more on Legacy FC’s upcoming schedule, check out the MMA Rumors section of the site.