Mackenzie Dern entered her main card Strawweight battle versus Loopy Godinez in pretty dire straights.
Though ranked at No. 7 in the world, Dern’s last two performances weren’t great. Jessica Andrade knocked her out badly towards the end of 2013, then earlier this year, Amanda Lemos scored a ton of punishing shots en route to a dominant decision win. Worse than the outcomes themselves, Dern appeared to be regressing, which happens when you suddenly stop working with your acclaimed boxing coach.
Fortunately, Dern recognized the situation. She got back with Jason Parillo, and — SHOCKER! — her hands looked a lot better here. Her jab was noticeably stiffer, her right hand thrown more down the middle, and her combination punching improved. Godinez was expected to have a striking advantage here, and though she did win portions of the fight according to the numbers, it was clear that Dern was landing the more damaging blows.
Those are significant and positive improvements from Dern. Given her world-class grappling background, any potency in her standup game will always be amplified. Opponents cannot ever fully worry about her snappy jab, because the threat of getting taken down and arm barred will always be more significant.
Case in point: Dern nearly finished Godinez in the first with a very tight armbar. When Godinez managed to lock her hands and defend, Dern smashed her nose with a series of hammerfists. That’s brilliant work, the kind of special offense that separates Dern from the Strawweight pack and continually keeps her as an interesting contender.
The problem is that her flaws are still largely unaffected.
There are two notably massive issues with Dern’s game. First and foremost, her chin rises way too high in exchanges. She’ll bite down on the mouth piece, stick a hard jab, and then pull away with her eyes to the sky. Against opponents who can crack and extend exchanges — like Andrade and Lemos — this is a massive issue. Godinez isn’t a huge puncher, so Dern got away with it here.
Secondly, Dern’s wrestling remains unimpressive. In this match up, she scored two takedowns: a stereotypically awful headlock throw and a nice double along the fence. It’s really a microcosm of Dern’s stagnant situation: one example of something bad that has yet to improve, then something promising. The double leg was quite nice, timed well along the fence as Godinez shelled up to avoid the punches.
Here’s the thing: the double along the fence is easy to learn. Dern already hits hard enough to earn her opponent’s respect. If she engages a bit more tactically with that improved jab and straight, there’s no reason she shouldn’t be consistently nailing the double along the cage. Instead, she’s still lunging forward for awkward clinch attempts or jumping guard, rather than actually setting up the easy takedown.
In summary, Dern’s situation remains the same: she’s the Strawweight wild card. Her grappling excellence means she can never truly be counted out of a fight. She could triangle choke Zhang Weili tomorrow. At the same time, her bad boxing defense and inconsistent wrestling mean that she could end up stranded on her feet and cracked by anyone in the Strawweight Top 15.
The end result is inconsistency. Until she improves these fixable issues, Dern will never win enough fights in a row to gain the chance to make a miracle happen on the biggest stage. At 31 years of age, there’s still time for improvement, but each year that goes by without progress makes it less likely.
For complete UFC Abu Dhabi: “Sandhagen vs. Nurmagomedov” results and play-by-play, click HERE!