Mackenzie Dern 'wasn't disappointed' she didn't get Zhang Weili fight

It looks like Mackenzie Dern will have to wait a bit longer for her to fully silence some of her doubters.

>Dern (16-5 MMA, 11-5 UFC) finally booked her first fight as UFC strawweight champion – a title defense against top contender Gillian Robertson in the co-main event of UFC 330 on Aug. 15 at the Xfinity Mobile Arena in Philadelphia. Although there's no denying Robertson (17-8 MMA, 14-6 UFC) is a deserving contender, many expected Dern to face Zhang Weili, who never lost the strawweight belt. She vacated it to pursue a second divisional title at flyweight. Weili ended up coming short against UFC women's flyweight champion Valentina Shevchenko in November, and voiced her interest in a return to 115 pounds.

>Dern, like many, was under the impression this was her next fight, but for some reason, it didn't materialize.

>"I can't give you that response," Dern said on "The Ariel Helwani Show." "I don't know. I don't know. They were talking about Weili. They had mentioned Macau, and the White House, New Jersey. I'm not sure what happened or what's going on. They came back with Gillian Robertson, I think after her win against Amanda Lemos, that was maybe April. So yeah, it's August 15."

>Because Weili vacated the belt and never lost it, many still see her as the best female fighter at 115 pounds. Dern is well aware of the narrative that's been built, but even then wasn't sad she didn't get the opportunity to erase any doubts.

>"No, no, I definitely wasn't disappointed," Dern said. "I mean, I would be excited to fight her, but not in a pressure way like I need to prove people. I feel like a lot of people talk about that I'm not the champ because I didn't beat her and stuff like that. It would've been an honor, and it would've been amazing to beat her, but yeah, if I have six more months or however many title fights I have to get in to just get better and better and be more prepared to fight her, I'm excited for that."

>Part of why Dern is at peace with fighting Robertson and not Weili is because the criticism around her title reign hasn't come from her UFC peers.

>"No, because I don't see any champions saying that," Dern explained. "The people who are saying that obviously have never been a champion in fighting. Probably a school race in high school or something like that, maybe the max, but nobody that's been a UFC champion has said anything like that or anybody that's really accomplished something. There's only so much you can do. It doesn't really bother me."

>This article originally appeared on MMA Junkie: Mackenzie Dern 'wasn't disappointed' she didn't get Zhang Weili fight