Overview
- Mackenzie Dern and Virna Jandiroba meet in the UFC 321 co-main event on October 25 at Etihad Arena for the vacant strawweight title, opened when Zhang Weili moved to flyweight to challenge Valentina Shevchenko.
- Dern says she has been visualizing her hand being raised with Dana White present and frames her career adversity as preparation for a championship breakthrough.
- She also acknowledges she wouldn’t be ready to face Zhang today but believes winning the belt would change that, with any talk of a White House showcase next year described in reports as speculative.
- Jandiroba arrives on a long win streak — highlighted by UFC promotion as six straight — and cites significant technical and mental gains since 2020, adding she expects Zhang could return to test the new champion.
- Their first bout in 2020 went to Dern by unanimous decision, and both say the rematch will look different, as a UFC embedded clip showing Dern poolside drew online criticism of the promotion’s presentation.