Mackenzie Dern successfully defended her strawweight title with a largely one-sided but somewhat lackluster outing against Gillian Robertson in the UFC 330 co-main event.
Takedowns and submission attempts ruled the day for Dern as she came close to finishing Robertson a couple of times during the fight but she mostly just maintained control and showed she was the superior grappler. Robertson really didn’t produce any offense until the final round and even then she just managed to stay in control on the ground without really damaging Dern.
When it was over the judges scored the fight 49-46, 49-46 and 48-47 with Dern getting the unanimous decision victory.
“I’m super happy,” Dern said about her win. “My first title win I got taken down a lot of times so I’ve been working on my wrestling. I’m still the champion. I definitely wanted to submit her, that was the goal. I try to get submissions in all my fights. I wish I could do some more damage to set up the submissions.”
A striking exchange led to Robertson shooting for a takedown but Dern countered effectively before the strawweights separated again. Dern was very effective with her combinations including a stiff leg kick that kept chipping away at Robertson’s base.
A moment later, Dern scored her first takedown and she immediately began raining down punches before advancing to half-guard. That led to Dern briefly looking for a kimura but she maintained a dominant position and eventually taking the back.
Dern quickly snatched a rear-naked choke and it looked like the fight was over but Robertson stayed tough and she survived until the horn sounded to end the round.
On the restart, Dern immediately took Robertson to the ground again and she was quick to start setting up submissions. A second later, Dern took the back and tried an unorthodox arm triangle choke that ended up with Robertson getting on top, although she was still stuck playing defense with the champion constantly attacking with submission attempts.
Robertson did manage to connect with some solid uppercuts when she finally grabbed onto Dern in the clinch but she just wasn’t able to do much damage. Dern was still landing solid punches of her own including a stiff jab that was constantly finding Robertson’s chin.
As soon as Robertson got a little too aggressive, Dern countered with a takedown to bring the fight back to her world on the canvas. Time ran out before she could do much of anything but Dern still exerted her superior control whenever she turned to her grappling.
Dern snatched another takedown in the fourth round and quickly moved to take the back while locking on the body triangle. From there, Dern kept searching for the rear-naked choke but she just couldn’t secure the submission.
With five minutes remaining, Robertson finally secured a takedown of her own but she just couldn’t produce much offense with Dern defending from the bottom. That’s effectively how the whole round played out with Dern immediately celebrating her victory after the final horn sounded.
Dern now has a title defense on her resume as she awaits her next challenge with former champion Zhang Weili as the most desired opponent if she decides to compete again at 115 pounds.