Copyright Yardbarker
Following Mackenzie Dern’s strawweight title win at UFC 321, fans have pleaded with the strawweight GOAT to come out of retirement to save the division. This past Saturday in the UFC 321 co-main event, Mackenzie Dern and Virna Jandiroba competed for the vacant strawweight title after Zhang Weili vacated it earlier this year. After a back-and-forth 25 minutes of action, the fight went to a decision where all three judges awarded Dern the win, making her the new queen of the division. And despite the Brazilian having been a permanent fixture in the 115lb division for several years now, fans are worried about the future of the division and have called for a favorite to return from retirement. Fans claim Joanna Jedrzejczyk could come back and immediately win the title Historically, the UFC strawweight division has been the strongest female division in the sport, closely followed by the flyweight division. However, following Weili’s title vacation, fans immediately highlighted it as the worst division in the sport, which is crying out for some star power. And with that, there have already been calls for former champion and consensus strawweight GOAT, Joanna Jedrzejczyk to return to action. After one fan posed the fantasy matchup between Dern and Jedrzejczyk, fans began giving their predictions of how that fight would play out, calling for the Polish fighter to return. “Please come back and save the division,” one fan commented. “LMFAO, Joanna could come off the couch and absolutely school Dern,” another fan predicted the matchup. “Joanna would destroy Dern,” a third fan reacted. “You could let Dern have a whole training camp, and tell Joanna she’s fighting 90 seconds before the fight, and Joanna handles her before the championship rounds,” another fan predicted. Unfortunately, though, it is unlikely that Joanna returns to the sport having retired due to ongoing health issues and her struggles making 115lbs. In the 38-year-old’s last fight, she fought Weili in a rematch of their first fight which will potentially go down as the greatest female fight of all time. Unfortunately in the rematch, she suffered a brutal spinning back fist KO loss. Who could Dern fight in first title defense? Following her win on Saturday, the newly crowned Brazilian champion claimed that she would like to fight Zhang Weili next despite the fact ‘Magnum’ is competing for the flyweight title at UFC 322. However, it is currently unknown whether Weili will move back down to 115lbs following her UFC 322 title fight. And with that, the only contender that could make sense for Dern next, is Tatiana Suarez. Suarez is coming off the back of a win and her only loss in the sport came to Weili when they clashed for the title earlier this year.
