UFC women’s strawweight champion Mackenzie Dern has taken the time to reflect on her big win over Gillian Robertson at UFC 330 last night.

In the co-main event of UFC 330, Mackenzie Dern was able to keep hold of her title with a decisive win over Gillian Robertson. While it wasn’t the most action-packed contest of the night, Dern did what she needed to do in order to get past Robertson who knew this was the biggest fight of her career.

Mackenzie Dern has been a fan favorite for a long time now, but she has definitely been looking to prove herself as a worthy, legitimate champion in the promotion. In the eyes of many, she was able to do that at UFC 330 – even though some are still eager to see her go up against Zhang Weili.

In her post-fight press conference appearance, Mackenzie Dern had the following to say about her triumph in Philadelphia.

Mackenzie Dern reflects on win over Gillian Robertson

“It feels good, but it could feel even better if I got the submission,” Dern told reporters after the fight. “I’m someone who is always looking for the best performance possible. I’m happy with my wrestling. I’m happy with the dominance of the fight. But I wanted to submit Gillian for sure. There are lots of things where I want to get better. I want to be able to defend it more and more times. But I definitely feel like I solidified myself as the champ.”

“I think it was something I could’ve done better for sure,” Dern said. “There was some moments in the fight that I was just kind of split between whether I’d do more damage or if I look for the submission. You get in the moment and you think, ‘Ah, should I stay more in this type of position so I can hit her more or do I keep attacking the submission?’ Like, the rear-naked choke, if I had gotten it 15 seconds earlier, I think I would’ve gotten it because it was pretty deep. But little details, little things that I can definitely fix.”

“I felt like the champion before I won the belt,” Dern said. “I just feel like I solidified myself even more as a champ for the fans that they would say that. I don’t think I need to (beat) Weili to be a champ. People retire. I’m not saying that’s what she’s going to do but the more defenses I can get at this, whoever comes next, I think I proved I was the champ. Gillian was on a five-fight winning streak. Virna was a four-fight winning streak. I just became a four-fight winning streak. I don’t know how much more I need to do from that.” Quotes via MMA Junkie

Ian Shutts

A combat sports journalist specialising in MMA, Boxing and Muay Thai with a special interest in Asian combat sports.