Following her strawweight title win in October 2025, Mackenzie Dern has been the UFC’s go-to girl whenever Paramount+ wants to show off the more glamorous side of the sport. Dern made a dazzling appearance on the red carpet of the Golden Globes, a more confused appearance on the broadcast itself, and then got plenty of screen time during UFC 324.
MMA Junkie spoke with Dern at UFC 324, who sounded prepared for Zhang’s return back to strawweight.
“There’ve been girls I think that could come up depending on their fight schedule,” she said. “But I think Weili is a really, really strong contender.”
Dern won her title by beating Virna Jandiroba, no easy feat. But Zhang Weili is considered a level above everyone else at strawweight, and there’s a general opinion that Mackenzie needs to beat Zhang to cement her position at the top of the division.
“I don’t feel like I need to, but I feel like the fans really want to see it, you know what I mean?” Dern said of that. “If she wanted to retire today, she could because she’s accomplished so much.”
“So I don’t put that pressure on myself that I need to fight her, but it would definitely be very fulfilling to beat her and kind of solidify to anyone that had a doubt that I’m the real champion and I just didn’t get it easy.”
It’s clear that the UFC values Mackenzie Dern as a representative of the sport. She’s got such crossover appeal that she drew Mark Zuckerberg out to the UFC Apex, which is now the Meta Apex after months of canoodling with new Meta board of directors member Dana White.
The obvious opponent for Dern is Zhang, but given Mackenzie’s popularity and potential mainstream appeal, we wouldn’t be surprised if she gets a chance to defend against someone other than Zhang first, especially if Weili isn’t ready for whatever date the UFC has in mind.
