Mackenzie Dern, an expert MMA fighter within the UFC strawweight division and a leisure poker participant, captured the vacant UFC Girls’s Strawweight Championship on Saturday, October 25, defeating Virna Jandiroba by unanimous determination.
Dern, who entered the bout ranked No. 5 within the division, earned her first UFC title after former champion Zhang Weili vacated the belt to maneuver up and problem for the flyweight championship in opposition to Valentina Shevchenko.
The struggle was intently contested by way of 4 rounds, however Dern’s sturdy end within the fifth proved decisive. The judges scored the bout 48–47, 49–46, and 48–47, giving Dern the sting in a rematch of their 2020 assembly, which she additionally received by determination.
Dern’s Poker Background
Exterior the Octagon, Dern is an energetic leisure poker participant and a well-known face on the Superstar Poker Tour (CPT) at PokerGO Studios in Las Vegas. She has three recorded outcomes on her Hendon Mob profile, together with a Seventh-place end in Might 2025 value $2,500.
Dern additionally made headlines throughout the 2025 World Collection of Poker, getting into the $500 Colossus occasion. Whereas she didn’t money, her husband, fellow MMA fighter Antonio Trocoli, completed sixth for $122,330, incomes his greatest stay outcome thus far.
Dern has credited her poker experiences with enhancing her psychological sport in MMA. In earlier interviews, she has mentioned she believes that poker has helped her management her feelings, learn opponents, and decide the appropriate moments, expertise which have translated into improved pacing, entries, and submission chains in her fights. “Poker has helped me management my feelings. I’m very impulsive, however in poker, it’s important to be taught endurance. folding, studying folks, ready for the appropriate second. It’s helped me change into a greater fighter,” Dern shared.
As she celebrates turning into a UFC champion, don’t be stunned if Dern takes a seat on the poker desk once more quickly, this time with a gold belt round her waist.
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