Mackenzie Dern responds to Din Thomas’s ‘insignificant’ label of her UFC 321 title fight win

UFC women’s strawweight champion Mackenzie Dern isn’t happy with analyst Din Thomas after his pre-UFC 321 remarks about her ‘insignificant’ title fight.

Mackenzie Dern won the then-vacant UFC strawweight title over Virna Jandiroba at UFC 321 last Saturday in Abu Dhabi. She outpointed Jandiroba by unanimous decision to secure a UFC belt and usher in a new era in the strawweight division.

Leading up to UFC 321, UFC analyst and former fighter Din Thomas wasn’t excited to break down the strawweight title fight between Jandiroba and Dern. Thomas labeled the fight the ‘most insignificant fight’ in recent UFC history following Zhang Weili’s title vacation.

After earning the UFC strawweight title at UFC 321, Dern was pressed on Thomas’s comments.

Mackenzie Dern hits back at Din Thomas over ‘insignificant’ fight remarks

During a recent appearance on The Ariel Helwani Show, Dern was asked to weigh in on Thomas’s pre-fight remarks.

😭🏆 Din Thomas is absolutely ruthless about Virna Jandiroba vs. Mackenzie Dern title fight at UFC321:

“Has there ever been.. and I mean this with respect. Has there ever been a more insignificant title fight in UFC history?”

🎥 @theonpaperpod / @home_of_fight pic.twitter.com/1s7yRcggqm

— Home of Fight (@Home_of_Fight) October 22, 2025

“Jon Jones gave up his belt and Tom Aspinall became the champion. What do we in the [strawweight] division have to do with it? People can’t retire? Can’t go up in weight?” Dern said of Thomas.

“For a vacant belt, who else would fight for the belt? So I don’t understand what would be so insignificant fighting for a championship. Weili, she’s accomplished everything, she didn’t even need to go up to flyweight. Weili could’ve just retired and then what are they gonna do? They’re gonna keep the division open. They gotta have a champion, so I don’t understand. How is any championship fight insignificant?

“As a commentator, and I think he helps training coaches too, I thought it was a little bit…I didn’t understand it.”

This isn’t the first time Thomas’s analysis has raised eyebrows. Just a few months ago, Thomas came under fire for labeling a potential Khamzat Chimaev title win at ‘disaster’ for the UFC ahead of Chimaev’s victory at UFC 319.