On October 9, UFC fight night 194 will take place at UFC Apex in Las Vegas, Nevada. The headlining of the event will be a female strawweight bout between the #4 ranked contender Mackenzie Dern and the #6 ranked Marina Rodriguez. The winner of this bout will most likely earn the title shot against the winner between Rose Namajunas and Zhang Weili.
Mackenzie Dern is one of the most talented and brutal BJJ female fighters. In the UFC, she signed in 2018 and already fought 7 times and will fight her 8th fight in less than 3 years. The only loss she suffered against Amanda Ribas in 2019, but she earned 4 victories in a row since that loss. The last time she fought against the partner of current featherweight and bantamweight champion’s Nina Nunes. She defeated Nina in the first round via submission Armbar just 12 seconds before the first round bell. 7 out of 11 victories she earned via submissions, she is a black belt in BJJ under Wellington “Megaton” Dias. She has 22 gold medals in different famous BJJ championships all around the world.
Bet on Mackenzie Dern vs Marina Rodriguez with 1xBetHer rival will be Marina Rodriguez, with 14 victories, only 1 defeat, and two draws. In the UFC, he earned four wins and suffered a first-ever loss in her professional MMA career. Even though she is Brazilian, she is more striker than BJJ. She will have an advantage on the striking against Dern, but Mackenzie will be more dominant for sure on the ground. In 2021 she earned 2 victories against Amanda Ribas (who managed to defeat Mackenzie Dern), and Michelle Waterson. It will be the biggest test in her career, and if she defeats BJJ master, she will at least get the #4 rank position and might get her title shot, too.
From my point of view, Mackenzie Dern is the girl made by the champion’s material. She is very dangerous on the ground. There is no safe position against her; she can choke rivals from anywhere, break the hands or legs of her rivals from the top position, or her back.
Marina Rodriguez defeated two great submissions specialists already in the following year, but I think that Dern will offer something unique to her.
Dern will open this bout as the favorite with the odd around 1.65, while Marina Rodriguez will be a slight underdog with the odds around 2.4
