PHILADELPHIA – Mackenzie Dern says everything is cool with Gillian Robertson, at least on her end.
Dern (16-5 MMA, 11-5 UFC) has been accused by Robertson (17-8 MMA, 14-6 UFC) of being dismissive ahead of their co-main event bout at UFC 330 (Paramount+), which takes place Saturday at Xfinity Mobile Arena. Robertson has seen some of the comments the UFC women's strawweight champion has made in the media, and she believes they've carried a disrespectful undertone ahead of their title clash.
Dern assures there's no personal issue with Robertson and doesn't understand where the Canadian is coming from.
"I don't like her or dislike her; I don't know her," Dern told MMA Junkie and other reporters during Wednesday's media day. "But yeah, I think it's
cool she's tied with the most finishes, and I think there's a lot of stuff I'm learning about her this week. Not because I have anything against it; I think she definitely had her eyes more on me than I did on her, just because she was in the 125 division and she wasn't even in our division, and now she came down and was just focused on me and Weili at the time, and not who's fighting behind me. So I never really paid attention. Not that I like her or dislike her. I respect her journey in the UFC. ... I think she's the one that doesn't like me."
Dern did own up to not having Robertson on her radar, but that was more of a circumstantial thing than intentional. After all, being the champion, Dern feels she's more advanced in her career, which is why Robertson wasn't much of a focus until now.
"When they mentioned maybe the winner of Amanda Lemos and Gillian Robertson would be my next title fight, I thought Amanda because I had a loss to her, and then Gillian," Dern said. "I know she was on like a four-fight winning streak, so for the strawweight division, if you have a good two wins or three, you can cut that line pretty easy. So her having four straight wins, and now five, I was like, 'Yeah, this makes sense.' But yeah, I was happy, especially being a grappler; I think it's a good matchup."
This article originally appeared on MMA Junkie: UFC 330: Mackenzie Dern denies having beef with Gillian Robertson
