Mackenzie Dern recently shared some thoughts on her transition to MMA, and how her willingness to accept a takedown was a problem to begin with. It’s an understandable tendency for any elite BJJ competitor, as they often have a lot of faith in their ability to sweep or submit opponents from their guard. When it comes to a Jiu-Jitsu match, conceding a takedown might mean that your opponent scores two points but for many grapplers it’s a good trade-off to get the match where they want it. When it comes to MMA; the addition of strikes, referee stand-ups, and shorter rounds all combine to make being taken down a much less appealing proposition.
Dern explained that she was just as susceptible to this tendency as other MMA fighters with BJJ backgrounds have been over the years:
“I’ve always kind of had this problem where I accept the takedown sometimes. Even my coach is like, ‘Let’s not stay on the bottom.’ You know, even though I’m super comfortable on it.”
She explained exactly why she’s had to work on fixing that bad habit too:
“Sometimes you could meet a really strong person, you know, someone strong and just have good pressure, and you can’t move, and then there’s a round that you kind of gave away for accepting the takedown.”
She also took a moment to explain how that applies to her next fight, a title-fight with Virna Jandiroba at UFC 321, and how she plans on dealing with her opponent’s grappling:
“You can kind of see her takedowns coming in. She doesn’t throw too much on the punches. So, you know, I feel like just staying ahead by seeing everything. If I can see it, I think I can stuff it.”
The full interview with Mackenzie Dern where she talks about accepting the takedown in her MMA career was uploaded to the official YouTube channel of Full Send MMA:
