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Virna Jandiroba disagrees with how Mackenzie Dern views her own progression.
In the co-feature of UFC 321 (ESPN+ pay-per-view), Jandiroba will meet Dern inside the octagon for the second time. This instance will be for the vacant strawweight title, prompted by Zhang Weili’s departure to the flyweight division. The first time around, Jandiroba dropped a unanimous decision to Dern at UFC 256, which has been a loss the Brazilian grappler has wanted to get back ever since.
“The rematch is something that I always wanted, but being on a title fight made it more special – it was the cherry on the cake,” Jandiroba told MMA Junkie through an interpreter. “It just made the whole thing that was supposed to already be special just even more.”
Jandiroba has only lost one other fight since the judges declared Dern the winner in their first meeting. That loss came against Amanda Ribas at UFC 267, but since then, she’s been on a roll with five consecutive wins. Over the years, Jandiroba credits a change in her mental approach to not only the sport, but life in general, which has led her to her first championship opportunity in the UFC.
“I think technically and physically, you can see a lot of difference, but the biggest difference I think was my mental state and my self-awareness,” Jandiroba said. “I did a lot of work on that part of things with the psychology of not just the sport, but with myself as an individual. … I think I learned to be better with Virna, like to be a better person with myself. That is a huge thing. I think most of us would get a great improvement in our quality of life if we were better to ourselves.”
While Jandiroba is aware of her growth as a person and a fighter, Dern has not been so complimentary in her own self-assessment. Dern seems to believe the growth in her game may have stagnated. Since defeating Jandiroba in 2020, Dern has produced a mixed bag of results with a record of 5-4.
Despite the ups and downs, Jandiroba sees significant growth in Dern’s game, and believes her self-criticism may be too harsh.
“Technically, you can clearly see that she’s improved in a lot of her last fights,” Jandiroba said. “She shouldn’t be that hard on herself. I think her striking has developed a lot, her wrestling, which was always something people questioned, has developed for sure. So, she’s definitely a better fighter now than she was back then.”
