Mackenzie Dern credits poker patience as she prepares to defend UFC strawweight title at UFC 330

Mackenzie Dern says the patience she has developed playing no-limit Texas hold'em poker has helped her approach to fighting, and she will make the first defence of her UFC strawweight title against Gillian Robertson at UFC 330 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania on Saturday.

Dern, now 33, has won 16 of her 21 professional fights and made her UFC debut in 2018; she won six of her first seven bouts in the promotion before suffering four defeats in her next six fights, a run she attributes to a lack of composure. "I've always been - and people who have seen my fights think it - an emotional fighter," Dern told BBC Sport. "So I come out nice and technical but after two or three punches land, I would go into red mode and go forward. Basically the whole strategy goes out the window."

She began playing no-limit Texas hold'em in 2024 and limits games to periods outside training camps, and Dern says the experience changed how she trains, spars and competes. Since taking up poker, she has won three straight fights, including victory over Virna Jandiroba last October to realise her dream of becoming a UFC champion.

Dern described how poker has altered her emotional control and fighting reads. "In poker you need to be able to control your emotions. There's times I'd have a pair of aces and go all in, but then no-one jumps in and you get very little money for it," she said. "You have to learn how to extract and read people, and that's something I've been able to put into my fighting. I've learned how to be more calm. Poker is a patience game. That emotional part and reading people is something I didn't have but since poker, I've been able to implement that into my fighting."

Brazilian middleweight Caio Borralho has made a similar connection between strategy games and fighting, crediting chess and saying strategic planning is "the most important thing" in fighting. Dern echoed that strategic shift in mindset: "I just played for fun and got interested. It's just like fighting, the first few times I was making mistakes," she added. "But then you start to see the high risk-low reward and low risk-high reward, and not just focus on what you do, but focus on what else can be possible. I didn't even think 'oh, I'm going to do this in my fighting'. I just felt how my mindset had changed. I think it really correlates with me playing poker more often."

Dern's use of poker as a mental tool comes with acknowledged risks around gambling; a 2018 study published in Australia found 39% of the regular poker players it surveyed had moderate to severe gambling problems, while about a quarter had caused financial problems for themselves or their households.

The Dern v Robertson bout will be the co-main event at the Xfinity Mobile Arena, with Islam Makhachev defending his welterweight title against Ireland's Ian Machado Garry at the top of the card; Makhachev, a former lightweight champion, is making the first defence of his belt after moving up in weight last year, while Machado Garry is aiming to become the first Irish champion since Conor McGregor.