Canada’s Gillian Robertson falls to Mackenzie Dern in strawweight title fight at UFC 330

PHILADELPHIA — Mackenzie Dern successfully defended the 115-pound championship in her first title defense with a unanimous decision victory over Gillian Robertson in the first of two championship fights on Saturday night at UFC 330.

Dern (17-5) won the vacant strawweight belt in her last fight at UFC 321 and won a lopsided and lackluster first defense against Robertson.

Dern won 49-46 on two scorecards and 48-47 on the third.

“I wanted to get the submission with Gillian,” Dern said. “I definitely wanted to submit her. That was the goal.”

Dern nearly made Robertson (17-9) tap in the first round with a choke hold that about turned the challenger’s face as pinkish-red as her braided hair. Dern might have won the bout had it stretched even another 30 seconds, but Robertson was saved by the bell.

Too bad the fight didn’t end there.

The next four rounds were relatively uneventful, and the title match slowed to a near complete stop as they mostly locked up on the canvas with barely a strike thrown.

Dern’s seven-year-old daughter peered her head over the barricade from her front row seat and shouted encouragement each time mom got close to her side of the cage. The little girl could be heard well over a rowdy crowd that had about been lulled into passiveness — and eventually, boos in the fifth round — in the humdrum title fight.

Robertson was looking to become the first Canadian women to hold a UFC title entering the fight, and just the third Canadian to ever hold a UFC belt.

Carlos Newton and UFC Hall of Famer Georges St-Pierre are the only Canadians to ever win a UFC title.

— with files from Sportsnet Staff