Marina Rodriguez poses a threat on every square foot of the Octagon. In open space, the Ultimate Fighting Championship women’s strawweight contender can be downright lethal.
Rodriguez deployed a multi-faceted standup attack, withstood two edge-of-your-seat ground exchanges with Mackenzie Dern and laid claim to a unanimous decision over the 2015 Abu Dhabi Combat Club Submission Wrestling World Championships gold medalist in the UFC Fight Night 194 main event on Saturday at the UFC Apex in Las Vegas. All three judges scored it 49-46 for the Brazilian muay Thai practitioner.
Dern dominated the second round—she accrued more than four minutes of control time—after luring her counterpart to the mat and managed to work to full mount again late in the fourth, but she was woefully out of her depth on the feet.