Din Thomas had some choice words for the vacant strawweight title fight at UFC 321.
With Zhang Weili relinquishing her belt for a move up to flyweight, Virna Jandiroba (22-3 MMA, 8-3 UFC) and Mackenzie Dern (15-5 MMA, 10-5 UFC) will battle for the vacant 115-pound title in Saturday’s co-main event (Pay-per-view, FX/Disney+/ESPN+) at Etihad Arena in Abu Dhabi.
Thomas didn’t hold back when discussing the historical significance of this title fight.
“I mean this with all due respect,” Thomas said on the “On Paper with Anthony Smith” podcast. “I’m trying to be as respectful, but has there ever been a more insignificant title fight in the history – not, maybe, in the history, but in the last recent memory? You get where I’m coming from, right? No one seems to even care or have batted an eye at this fight.”
Dern defeated Jandiroba by unanimous decision at UFC 256 in December 2020. She is the slight favorite to win the rematch, and Thomas thinks the jiu-jitsu champion’s mindset will play a major factor.
“If you look at some of Mackenzie’s performances, part of me thinks that she has a little Kevin Holland thing going on where she just hasn’t reached her potential,” Thomas said. “Because I think she’s better – it’s weird to say this because she’s fighting for a title – but I think she’s better than what she’s ever showed. Her performance against Angela Hill, that had to have been a nightmare for Angela Hill trying to get through that fight. Mackenzie Dern, she punches as hard as anybody in the division, she grapples as well as anybody in the division, she’s got gas for days, she doesn’t get tired.
“It’s just sometimes, she doesn’t seem like she even cares about fighting. I’ve spoke to her on the desk, and she was like, ‘Oh, I didn’t really know how to shoot takedowns with punches,’ and she was already a professional and didn’t know these things, and I’m thinking, how did you make it so far? She’s really good on the ground, she’s very athletic, and she’s born for this. She’s been in combat her entire life. I feel as though, if she takes it seriously, I think she should win this fight pretty handily.”
