LFA 6/AXS TV Fights video: Mackenzie Dern loves submissions, but wants you to see her standup

Mackenzie Dern has been looked at as one of MMA’s next big women’s prospects for a while. But when a former champion teammate publicly compared her to Ronda Rousey, it put things in perspective.

Dern’s MMA Lab teammate Benson Henderson is a former UFC and WEC lightweight champ now fighting for Bellator. And he said Dern, a jiu-jitsu ace, might be bigger than Rousey by the time all is said and done. That’s a pretty big bar to set.

“I didn’t know he was going to say that,” Dern told AXS TV Fights’ Ron Kruck. “He’s been at the very top and he knows what it means to be a champion. For him to think that I have everything it takes to be a champion, and to say I could be bigger than Ronda, I think it’s more inspiration – what I can bring to the MMA world as an athlete, as a person, and in fights.”

But there’s just one catch: Dern wants to get her own thing going.

“I don’t want to be another Ronda Rousey,” she said. “I want to be Mackenzie. But for me, it was such a pleasure (and) very nice for him to say that.”

Dern (2-0) is just two fights into her pro MMA career. Tonight at LFA 6, she’ll go for win No. 3 when she meets fellow newcomer Katherine Roy (1-0). LFA 6 takes place at Cowboys Dancehall in San Antonio, Texas, with a main card live on AXS TV.

This past July, Dern made her pro debut and went the distance for a win over Kenia Rosas at Legacy FC 58. In October, she put her jiu-jitsu skills on display with a first-round rear-naked choke submission of Montana Stewart at Legacy FC 61.

In tonight’s 120-pound catchweight fight with Roy, Dern wants to put her standup skills on display to show what she’s been working on at The MMA Lab with coach John Crouch.

“I’ve been working so much on my standup,” Dern said. “I said in the last fight I’m happy with the submission, but I was happy I was able to stand up a little bit. I wasn’t just rushing into the fight and trying for a takedown – I moved around a little bit. … The jiu-jitsu is there. I just need to get everything else in place.”

Check out the video above for more from Dern with Kruck ahead of LFA 6.

And for more on LFA 6, check out the MMA Rumors section of the site.

LFA 6 is live on AXS TV tonight at 9 p.m. ET (8 p.m. CT). Make sure to tweet along using #LFA6. AXS TV airs new, live fights almost every Friday night in 2017. Find AXS TV on your TV right here: www.axs.tv/fights.

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