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UFC women’s strawweight champion Mackenzie Dern has rejected the idea that she has legitimate beef with Gillian Robertson.

In the co-main event of UFC 330 this weekend, Mackenzie Dern will defend her UFC women’s strawweight championship against Gillian Robertson. After winning the belt, many doubted whether or not Dern would be a long-term champion – and in this bout with Robertson, she has the chance to silence a lot of her critics.

RELATED: Gillian Robertson believes she’s being overlooked by Mackenzie Dern ahead of UFC 330: “All for my benefit”

Robertson, meanwhile, has been waiting patiently for this opportunity for a long time, grinding her way to the top of the division. She’s also made it known that she feels like there may be a bit of beef between her and Dern, which could end up causing some tension later on in fight week.

In a recent interview, Dern had the following to say about that theory.

Dern rejects idea that she dislikes Robertson

“It’s funny that people say that because I felt like she was the one who was [trying to build the tension],” Dern told MMA Fighting on Tuesday. “She’s kind of been talking about submissions and why are people talking about me when she has the most submissions on Joe Rogan’s podcast and things like that, at least clips from what I’ve seen. I didn’t know who she was.

“I don’t have anything against her but I guess we do have some competitiveness right now besides the fact that we’re going to be punching each other in the face. We’ve kind of been talking back and forth about who has better submissions and this and that. Who has better grappling in MMA? I’m not someone to put someone down to make myself go up. I definitely took that from her end. I have nothing against her. I’ve never even met her.”

Quotes via MMA Fighting

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