Mackenzie’s jiu-jitsu is amazing, but so is Virna’s. Virna is good and that’s not me telling you — that’s Bia Mesquita telling me. Bia competed against both of them and she said, “Virna didn’t have any money to go to the big tournaments, but every tournament that has money involved, she wanted the money because she needed the money, and she was always very hard to beat.”
I think she only competed as a purple and brown belt once, but Bia said she’s really good, and she’s been proving that. Look at what she did to (Yan) Xiaonan, who drew with Mackenzie. (Note: it was a majority decision win for Dern)
Kyte: It feels like the thing they’re both best at is their grappling — 100 percent, no question — and they have similar grappling approaches. I would say Virna is a little bit better wrestler, a little better getting into the clinch, getting to where she wants to be in terms of trying to get you down, whereas Dern is going to throw punches and hope she can tie up and pull guard.
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DaMatta: She’ll try some takedowns, but she’ll only try takedowns if she’s losing on the feet. I see this very even because Virna is not a great striker either. Mackenzie has more power, but Virna is more technical, so it evens out.
I coached two times against Mackenzie and one time against Virna. The wins I had were with Amanda Ribas, so when I studied both of them, they’re very similar. Virna actually won one round against Ribas, which was the first round, where she took Amanda down and controlled her; the second and third round, she couldn’t take her down because we adjusted between rounds because Amanda was a little bit better standing.
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