Virna Jandiroba: 'I'm here to take the belt on Saturday'

When Virna Jandiroba made her octagon debut in April 2019, she was undefeated and had just defended the Invicta FC strawweight championship. 

She made her promotional debut against former two-time champion Carla Esparza and suffered her first career defeat. She rebounded with back-to-back wins before facing Mackenzie Dern at UFC 256 in December 2020. Dern defeated the Brazilian via unanimous decision. Currently riding a five-fight winning streak, and five years removed from their first encounter, the two will run it back in the UFC 321 co-main event with the vacant strawweight title on the line. 

“We’ve been on this journey for a long, long time. And finally on Saturday I’m going to be able to finally do it (fight for a UFC title),” Jandiroba said during the UFC 321 Media Day. “It’s been a long road, but now I’m finally here, and I’m here to take the belt on Saturday.”

Looking back at their first fight, there’s not much to take way. It was five years ago and both are different people and different fighters. 

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“I wouldn’t say I’ve watched it recently, but I watched it quite a bit back in the day. I think the loss was very important and more important than the fight itself is what I learned from it,” Jandiroba said. 

“I believe now I’m a completely different person and a completely different fighter than I was back then. That is water under the bridge and it doesn’t really make much, it doesn’t reflect much of what you’re going to see on Saturday. The big thing about that fight was just how much I’ve grown from it because of it and how much I learned from it.”

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