Mackenzie Dern didn’t add to her record number of submissions but showed another dangerous side to domination Angela Hill during Saturday’s UFC Fight Night main event in Las Vegas.
Dern (13-3), two-time jiu-jitsu world champion with the most four wins filed inside the Octagon in UFC strawweight history, spent most of the 25-minute bout taking control. Tighten or control on the frame, the main position to set a tapout. But Hill (15-13) defended bravely, fending off several armbanded assault attempts. Along the way, Hill suffers many punishments shown in her puffy face and nearly closing her left eye, but she survives to the end of an unequal fight.
Two referees for Dern 49-44, and the third for 49-43.
“I was trying to get the entry. I’m trying to catch up with Charles ‘Do Bronx’ [Oliveira] with the most submissions,” Dern said, referring to the former men’s lightweight champion, who has a UFC record of 16 submissions. Gillian Robertsonwho competed in both fly and weight, had the most women substitutes, with seven.
Dern is considered a grappling expert, but it was the stand-up game that helped her succeed. Her initial knockdown attempts failed, but she fought to the canvas in the first round with a right-handed swing that knocked Hill down. In the third round, Dern staggered her opponent with a lead knee to the chin.
Dern, who has lost two of her last three teamfights, has let her go all the time, taking in a career-remarkable 126 hits. Sixty-one of those came while manipulating the canvas, where she had already spent almost half the battle.
“I feel good,” said Dern, a 30-year-old who fights in Huntington Beach, California. “I’ve landed a lot of my shots.” Hill, 38 and from San Diego, has seen a two-match winning streak come to an end. Her last 10 games have been decided, and she is leading 4-6 in those games.
Then Dern, who was 8th in the ESPN straw rankings, called the former champion Namajuna rose. “I’ve never fought a former champion,” she said. “I feel like I might have that opportunity right now.”
