UFC star Mackenzie Dern has revealed that she didn’t know about her UFC 321 title shot until opening social media.
As we now know, Mackenzie Dern and Virna Jandiroba will battle it out for the UFC strawweight championship at UFC 321. The title fight was made after Zhang Weili vacated the title in order to pursue a second world championship up at flyweight, where she will take on Valentina Shevchenko.
For Mackenzie Dern, this is an opportunity to prove that the hype is, and has always been, real. She’s always been on the outskirts of claiming a title opportunity but has never quite been able to make it happen, and now, it’s finally arrived.
As it turns out, though, Mackenzie Dern herself wasn’t even aware that it would be for the undisputed crown until she saw the news break on Instagram.
Mackenzie Dern reveals UFC title shot surprise
“They were kind of talking about the interim belt. They had said the interim belt, um, and that was like maybe, I don’t know, three weeks ago, four weeks ago. They were talking about it, but they weren’t sure if they were going to do it. And then they’re like, ‘Okay, they’re going to do it, but wait until they announce it.’ And then I found out by Instagram that it was going to be for the actual belt. Wow. When Dana announced it.
“So I texted like Chiki. I’m like, ‘Wait, is it the real belt or the interim belt?’ He’s like, ‘Oh, it’s the real belt.’ So, yeah, that was just like very recent the change. Not the interim belt, but of course we were happy with the interim belt that would still… it’s still a belt and it would be like the next step to getting the belt, but the fact that it’s for the real belt definitely puts the extra happiness and gratefulness on it.”
