A Star Is Turning Away From MMA In Their Prime

First Things First

We’re less than a month away from the ADCC / CJI weekend. Today we’re going to take a look at one of the most surprising signings and explain why it’s a big deal even if their doesn’t actually happen (which it probably won’t).

A Champion Gives Up Their Their Prime To Pursue Their First Love

A few weeks ago the Craig Jones Invitational announced a signing that totally came out of left field. The reigning ADCC -66KG champion, Ffion Davies, said she’s not returning to defend her title. Davies is doing CJI instead.

Rumors swirled around who Craig Jones was bringing to compete opposite her. He teased he was inviting UFC stars in an attempt to capture some of the MMA audience.

Then Davies’s opponent was announced. It was a bigger shock than Davies herself.

Current 115-pound UFC contender and former ADCC World’s winner, Mackenzie Dern is returning to the sport of grappling.

Davies took to Luke Thomas’s podcast to talk about pay in women’s grappling, her background, and why she chose to jump to CJI. Thomas had a big statement that we’re going to explore today, “Imagine if I had never seen Mackenzie Dern’s jiujitsu, how would you describe it to me.”

Technical Takeaways

Davies said it best in her interview with Thomas, “Every girl in jiujitsu is a Mackenzie Dern fan. … She’s going to fight forward because she doesn’t fight any other way.”

Mackenzie Dern has one of the best BJJ competition pedigrees in all of MMA. She won every major relevant title there was for her to win, including the IBJJF and ADCC world titles.

Dern fights in the UFC at 115 pounds, but she routinely competed in the absolute division in grappling. She even beat Gabi Garcia while giving up about a 100-pound weight disadvantage.

Since making the switch to MMA, Dern has continued to excite. She’s won performance bonuses in six of her thirteen UFC fights.

Here’s the thing though. Dern’s game doesn’t really translate well to the highest levels of MMA.

Dern has a world-class submission game, she’s tough as nails, but she doesn’t have the wrestling to implement her best skill set. Plus, as you can see above, her striking isn’t crisp enough to threaten people on the feet.

In grappling Dern was primarily a hyper-aggressive guard player. That’s why she was a fan favorite in jiujitsu and remains an exciting name in the UFC.

To preview her match against the reigning -60 KG ADCC champion, we’re going to look at how Dern won that same title in 2015.

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