Mackenzie Dern on rolling with Ronda Rousey

Rare individuals become so highly skilled in one base discipline of mixed martial arts, that they can quickly make a mark in the sport. Perhaps most famously, Brock Lesnar 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. Mediagenic is a polite term for hot. And Dern is by all accounts a good and friendly human being.

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.

Just 2-0 so far, parallels are already being drawn with Ronda Rousey, who used her Judo base to lay waste to every female bantamweight for years. Rousey won her first eleven (amateur + pro) fights via armbar. Rowdy lost her last two and is done with the sport; some attribute those losses to an over-reliance on boxing.

During the 2017 World MMA Awards, Dern was asked if he could fall into the same trap, of straying too far from her roots.

“I think that Jiu-Jitsu is a lot more evolved than Judo,” said Dern. “Not that it’s worse or better. But it’s not just armbars, you know? Chokes – you defend the choke, we go to armbar. You defend the armbar, we got to Omoplata. It just keeps going, going, going.”

Dern was asked what would happen if she was to roll with Rousey, with no strikes.

“I think it would be a fun roll,” she said. “I think in the end, I would win the round.”

Dern was lastly asked how many times she thinks she could tap Rousey in ten minutes.

“I don’t know,” replied Dern. “Two, three times?”