PHILADELPHIA -- Despite the fact that injuries to multiple top fighters have made it so that Saturday's UFC 330 event will include the promotion's first women's title bout of 2026, the pair of strawweights competing in the co-main event have provided assurances that it will be a memorable one.
Submission ace Mackenzie Dern (16-5) will make the first defense of her 115-pound title inside Xfinity Mobile Arena when she welcomes Gillian Robertson (17-8), who holds UFC female records for most career submissions and finishes.
The 31-year-old Robertson looks to become the first female Canadian fighter to capture UFC gold (and just the third overall, joining Carlos Newton and Georges St-Pierre). She also made sure at Wednesday's media day to let it be known that she plans on going through the 33-year-old Dern, a slight betting favorite, in order to do so.
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"This isn't jiu-jitsu, it's an MMA fight," Robertson told CBS Sports. "I'm going to go in there and show her the damage I'm capable of delivering and make it a violent fight and just drown her. I'm down for a dog fight and I think that's the way I win it, honestly. I need to make it ugly for her and to get her in the clinch and throw elbows. I just need to make her not want to be in there with me."
The matchup features two fighters who have worked extremely hard in recent years to rebound from big defeats and evolve their skills and determination enough to author win streaks at the right time.
Dern, the daughter of Brazilian jiu-jitsu legend Wellington "Megaton" Dias, drew comparisons to Ronda Rousey before she even entered the UFC in 2018 thanks to her grappling success and marketability. But after a 6-1 start, she lost four of her next six bouts.
After focusing on improving her striking technique under head coach Jason Parillo, Dern dramatically turned things around and has won three straight, including a competitive decision win over Virna Jandiroba last October to claim the vacant strawweight title. Now, as champion, she reports the old MMA adage that champions become 30% better just by winning the title is true.
"My first day back training after winning the title, I was like, 'Coach, this is so weird. My punches better, my kicks are better,'" Dern told CBS Sports. "Everything was just better, as if I just got 30% better. I can't explain what it is but I definitely think the fans will see an even better Mackenzie than when I won the title."
Robertson, who made her UFC debut in 2017 after competing in Season 26 of "The Ultimate Fighter," started off just 7-5 in the Octagon. Slowly but surely, however, she committed to improving her craft under trainer and former UFC fighter Din Thomas and enters her first title bout having won seven of her last eight fights since 2022.
"A lot of it was just a growing process with me, trying to figure out exactly what I needed in order to walk into the cage confidently," Robertson said. "With my head coach, Din Thomas, and my team at Goat Shed [in Florida], I feel we have found the right formula to put me on the right path.
"I guess I was never on any specific pathway, I was just always ready to fight and have fun with it. It kind of just happened."
Robertson believes that her ground skills are being far overlooked in this matchup against the decorated Brazilian jiu-jitsu skills of the champion and believes her advantages in wrestling -- and the fact that she has historically been much more effective delivering ground and pound than Dern -- will play a much bigger role.
But for whatever Dern has lacked at times from the standpoint of takedown accuracy, she has more than made up for in her willingness to brawl when needed. Dern has an elite chin and believes that Robertson is making a key mistake if she plans to go toe to toe with her.
"That crazy fight instinct that I have is definitely something I'm very confident that not a lot of the girls have," Dern said. "It's just not in our natural womanhood, we are nurturing. Especially me being a mom, you aren't going to take the food off of my child's plate. I have to get intense like that. There is so much motivation behind it and there aren't enough girls who have that dog in them.
"We have seen [Robertson] get finished in fights. We have seen her get submitted. There are definitely holes and we will be looking for all of those holes."
Both fighters are predicting late stoppages with Robertson saying she will push the pace early and wear Dern down before going for the finish. But Dern has specifically pinpointed a late submission and admits that scoring one against the UFC's all-time women's leader has been the plan all along.
"That would be like the cherry on top," Dern said. "That is definitely one of my goals to get that submission against her. It would be great to submit the submission artist. [But fans] can expect an amazing fight, fireworks. We are really going to show MMA from striking to grappling and wrestling. But they can definitely expect a submission in like the fourth or fifth round."
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