Highly touted BJJ ace Mackenzie Dern made a big impression as she moved up a division to flyweight at LFA 24 last night against Mandy Polk.
Polk was 3-3 heading into the fight and soon found herself being put under pressure on the feet from Dern, who let her fists fly in the opening minutes and floored her opponent with a right hand.
The referee almost stopped it there and then, but decided to let it go a little longer, which enabled Dern to seize upon a rear-naked choke that would force Polk to tap out with just 2.55mins on the clock.
As a result the 24-year-old Dern, who is already a major star in the world of Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu, improved her MMA record to 4-0 and remains on course to become the next big thing ins women’s MMA.
It remains to be seen whether she’ll continue to fight at flyweight though, as despite her troubles making the 115lb strawweight limit in the past, earlier this week Dern wasn’t ruling out the possibility of trying to compete there again in the future.
“I’m excited to see 125 and to see how I do there, and see how I feel there, but it’s definitely not 100-percent that that’s the weight class I will want to stay at,” Dern told Ariel Helwani on ‘The MMA Hour’ show. “I feel like if I can figure out how to continue at 115, that would be better size-wise, but who knows?”
The UFC now has both 115lb and 125lb division for female fighters, so either way it seems that it’s only a matter of time before Dern finds her way to the Octagon.
