Competing in a sport for the first time in not ordinarily cause for much note. However, mixed martial arts is not ordinary. Drawing as it does from a base of any of several combat sports, rare individuals become so highly skilled in one discipline, that they can quickly make a mark in MMA. For example, Brock Lesnar famously won the UFC heavyweight championship in just his fourth fight, just 17 months after his MMA debut.
Phoenix, Arizona’s Mackenzie Dern, 23, is ranked by the IBJJF as the number one female black belt in Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu. She is also highly mediagenic.
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Mediagenic is a polite term for hot. Dern is also by all accounts a good, nice human being.
And rounding out a great story, she is a second generation fighter. Her dad is Wellington ‘Megaton’ Dias, a 6th degree black belt in BJJ under Royler Gracie, and the only BJJ competitor who has competed in all 21 World Jiu-Jitsu Championships, since the first edition in 1996.
Thus it was that the fight world turned it’s attention to her MMA debut Friday night vs. the also debuting Kenia Rosas at Legacy FC 58 in Lake Charles, Louisiana.
Dern quickly took the fight to the ground and worked for the rear naked choke. However, as Marcelo Garcia demonstrated in his MMA debut, grappling with gloves and strikes is a different animal. Rosas adroitly avoided Dern’s submission attempts from the back.
The pattern was to repeat in the second, with Dern taking it to the mat quickly, and getting mount. Dern landed hard shots from on top, but again, Rosas displayed toughness and skill, and stayed in the fight.
In the closing seconds, Dern sunk an armbar.
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“I didn’t hear a noise but it was backwards,” said Dern of Rosa’s elbow to Guilherme Cruz for MMA Fighting afterwards. “She has some flexibility so that’s maybe why they thought it was a good match-up. She punches really hard and I tried to punch hard too. I was glad I was able to take it to the ground all three rounds.”
“I went for the toehold. I figured if her arm was flexible, than her feet were flexible too. I obviously didn’t want to go three rounds. I tried to practice my punching, but she defends very well. I was happy with my performance.”
In the end, Dern earned a dominating unanimous decision (30-27, 30-26 and 30-25). 17 months from now, she could be fighting for a title.
The event, which aired on AXS TV, also saw BJJ and grappling great Robert Drysdale survive and early scare to come back in the second.
