Legacy FC 61 has filled out its’ bracket. They have found a new opponent for the highly touted prospect- bjj champion Mackenzie Dern.
Legacy FC 61 will be taking place October 14th in Dallas, Texas
Legacy FC Officials announced that following a submission victory against Kenia Rosas – Dern should go up against Montana Stewart next. Stewart has much more MMA experience and her current record stands at 5 victories and 2 losses.
Interesting fact about Stewart is that her losses were from her first two fights. She is currently on a 5 victory spree stretching from March 2015 to present date. Stewart is only 21 years old making Mackenzie Dern senior.
Stewart reportedly came in 5th at the National USA Wrestling championships so it’ll be interesting to see how Dern does against a wrestler.
“I’m always confident in my jiu-jitsu, especially since it was Kenia Rosas’ pro debut, and it was my first fight, so I was definitely confident in my jiu-jitsu,” Dern told Ariel Helwani on a recent edition of The MMA Hour. “I hoping to get a submission, but, man, she was so flexible and very tough.
“I wasn’t upset about it. I felt I was really good in the whole fight. It was good to see the cardio different between jiu-jitsu and MMA, to go all three rounds, and being attacking all three rounds and not feel tired, and see everything’s going good. And jiu-jitsu you don’t really hurt people. It was kind of good for me to see ‘okay, I can throw elbows, I can throw this.’ It was good for me to feel that. I like it.”
Rosas didn’t tap in many attacks, and Dern realized it would be tough to finish the fight after she escaped from the first armbar attempt.
“After the first armbar, I pretty much figured that she was flexible,” Dern said. “I mean, I don’t know if she was double jointed, but you see that in jiu-jitsu sometimes. I train with girls that are really flexible. In my mind, I was like ‘okay, what do I need to do not get tired if I don’t finish her?’ I was just trying to control, and I didn’t spend too much energy trying to submit something. I think that if I had a choke, I honestly think that she wouldn’t tap. I think she’d prefer to go to sleep. I could feel it. That warrior spirit, you know?”
“I just gained so much experience here,” she continued. “Some positions, I went to a kneebar and toehold, and I was like ‘let me work a little bit. This is my first fight, so let me work a little bit my punching, and try to get used to that.’ I didn’t get frustrated or anything like that. I think it would be maybe more frustrating if I felt her defending a lot the positions, but a lot of times I could feel I was getting to the positions and submissions, but she was just tough and hanging on. It was good for me to be calm during the fight, so I really enjoyed it.”
