Yan Xiaonan moves to 16-3 and closer to a strawweight title shot after her win over Mackenzie Dern on Saturday. (Photo by Jeff Bottari\/Zuffa LLC)<\/figcaption><\/p>\n<\/figure>\nMackenzie Dern is one of the most decorated jiu-jitsu artists ever to compete in the UFC, and that ability may yet lift her to a world championship.<\/p>\n
But it was Yan Xiaonan’s ability to fight off Dern’s dogged submission attempts, particularly in Rounds 2 and 5, that boosted her a step closer to a championship shot. Yan won a majority decision Saturday at Apex in Las Vegas by scores of 48-47 twice and 47-47, with judge Mike Bell giving Dern a 10-8 in the fifth to account for the draw. Yahoo Sports had it 48-47 for Yan.<\/p>\n
\u201cI know her jiu-jitsu is amazing,\u201d said Yan, who entered the bout ranked sixth at strawweight, one spot behind Dern.<\/p>\n
But Yan was equally amazing on a card fought without media and fans other than Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg, his wife, Priscilla Chan and some Facebook employees. Yan was the underdog but she came into the bout with a decided striking edge and used her strikes to keep Dern off balance for the most part.<\/p>\n
Dern took the fight to the ground for a long stretch at the end of the second and for a huge part of the final round, when coach Jason Parillo told her she was behind and needed to finish. Dern did exactly what Parillo asked, blazing out of the corner and into the line of fire to open the fifth.<\/p>\n
It paid off when Dern took Yan down, but try as she might, she couldn’t get the finish. That was due, Team Alpha Male coach Urijah Faber said, to a steady year of grappling work.<\/p>\n
\u201cShe put in so much work over the last year, [and] she moved specifically to [Team Alpha Male] to work on grappling,\u201d Faber told Yahoo Sports. \u201cHer fighting Dern was n’t our choice, but thank goodness she come a whole year in advance. We needed that entire time.\u201d<\/p>\n
UFC president Dana White raved about not only Yan’s performance, but also Dern’s. But he conceded he would have had a hard time believing Yan would have made it to the finish had he known beforehand that she’d spend so much time on the ground with Dern.<\/p>\n
That she did earned a huge respect from White.<\/p>\n
Story continues<\/button><\/p>\n\u201cWe were just sitting here talking and when I talked to Mackenzie, Mackenzie just said ‘She’s an absolute samurai warrior, never say die, and she was so tough,’\u201d White said. \u201cTo last four minutes on the ground with a highly motivated Mackenzie Dern says a lot about Yan.\u201d<\/p>\n
White had plenty of praise for Dern, saying she has both \u201cthe jiu-jitsu and the chin to be a champion. Man, can she take a shot.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n
\n
<\/noscript><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\nFacebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg applauds the action Saturday at Apex in Las Vegas at UFC Vegas 61. (Photo by Jeff Bottari\/Zuffa LLC)<\/figcaption><\/p>\n<\/figure>\nDana White, Mark Zuckerberg becoming buddies<\/h2>\n The Apex was closed by White because Zuckerberg attended the card. White said that Zuckerberg is an MMA fan and invited White to his home to have dinner.<\/p>\n
That set the stage for Zuckerberg and Chan and a few Facebook employees to attend the show, without either media or regular fans. Yan’s father flew in from China for the show but watched his daughter’s biggest win from the locker room.<\/p>\n
Asked if Zuckerberg were interesting in buying the company or getting involved, White laughed but never directly answered.<\/p>\n
\u201cI guess, let me put it to you this way: He hit me up and asked me to meet him for dinner up at this house,\u201d White told Yahoo Sports. \u201cI did. I flew in and we had dinner. We had a blast and we hit it off. He’s a huge fan of the sport. He’s a huge fan of the sport. I set it up so that him and his people could come watch a fight. I said, ‘Pick a fight,’ and they came down.<\/p>\n
\u201cObviously, I can’t tell you everything that’s going on, but he’s a big fan.\u201d<\/p>\n
Upon that, Yahoo Sports asked, \u201cSo he wants to be involved in some way?\u201d White responded, \u201cI don’t know, buddy. I don’t know.\u201d<\/p>\n
Pressed later on why he chose to close Apex to fans and media when many significant celebrities have attended UFC fights at Apex, White was mum.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere are reasons,\u201d White said. \u201cI wouldn’t close it off unless we had to but there are reasons. But I’m not going to talk about that publicly.\u201d<\/p>\n
UFC president White raves about Santos’ comeback win<\/h2>\n Daniel Santos’ second-round KO victory over John Castaneda was a wild back-and-forth affair which won Fight of the Night and would have had the crowd roaring through.<\/p>\n
Castaneda was dominant in the first round and nearly finished the fight on several occasions.<\/p>\n
But Santos weathered the storm and came back in a big way. The beginning of the end came in the second when he landed a huge knee to the chin with Castaneda’s back to the cage.<\/p>\n
Castaneda immediately went down and it was stopped.<\/p>\n
\u201cAmazing heart because I thought he was out and he came back, he wore him down and eventually wound up breaking him,\u201d White said of Santos. \u201cThe fight was unbelievable and of course it was Fight of the Night.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n
\n
<\/noscript><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\nDaniel Santos (L) dropped John Castaneda with a vicious knee to the head for the KO win Saturday at UFC Vegas 61. (Photo by Jeff Bottari\/Zuffa LLC)<\/figcaption><\/p>\n<\/figure>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Yan Xiaonan moves to 16-3 and closer to a strawweight title shot after her win over Mackenzie Dern on Saturday. (Photo by Jeff Bottari\/Zuffa LLC) Mackenzie Dern is one of the most decorated jiu-jitsu artists ever to compete in the UFC, and that ability may yet lift her to a world championship. But it was …<\/p>\n
Mark Zuckerberg watches as Yan Xiaonan’s submission defense shines in impressive win<\/span> Read More »<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","spay_email":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false,"jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":84383,"url":"https:\/\/harchi90.com\/yan-xiaonan-survives-mackenzie-derns-grappling-in-majority-decision-victory\/","url_meta":{"origin":84474,"position":0},"title":"Yan Xiaonan survives Mackenzie Dern’s grappling in majority-decision victory","date":"October 2, 2022","format":false,"excerpt":"Yan Xiaonan put on a show for the fans -- make that fan, singular -- in the main event of UFC Fight Night on Saturday in Las Vegas.Yan got the better of Mackenzie Dern in standup fighting and survived relentless grappling threats by her multiple-time jiu-jitsu world champion opponent to\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Sports"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":84788,"url":"https:\/\/harchi90.com\/mackenzie-dern-emotional-in-defeat-after-falling-to-yan-xiaonan-im-sorry-if-i-made-anyone-sad-with-my-performance\/","url_meta":{"origin":84474,"position":1},"title":"Mackenzie Dern emotional in defeat after falling to Yan Xiaonan: ‘I’m sorry if I made anyone sad with my performance’","date":"October 2, 2022","format":false,"excerpt":"Mackenzie Dern fought back the tears while addressing her latest setback after falling short to Yan Xiaonan by majority decision in the UFC Vegas 61 main event. Despite a dominant showing on the ground in two separate rounds, Dern failed to secure a submission to put Yan away and struggled\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Sports"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":84311,"url":"https:\/\/harchi90.com\/ufc-vegas-61-dern-vs-side-live-results-discussion-play-by-play\/","url_meta":{"origin":84474,"position":2},"title":"UFC Vegas 61: Dern vs. Side live results, discussion, play by play","date":"October 2, 2022","format":false,"excerpt":"Join us today on Bloody Elbow for live results, discussion, round scoring, and play-by-play (main event) as UFC Vegas 61: Dern vs. Side goes down in Sin City. The headliner comes in the women's strawweight division, with contenders Mackenzie Dern and Yan Xiaonan throwing down in a five-rounder. The co-main\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Sports"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":83101,"url":"https:\/\/harchi90.com\/ufc-vegas-61-weigh-in-results-mackenzie-dern-yan-xiaonan-on-point-for-main-event-one-bout-canceled\/","url_meta":{"origin":84474,"position":3},"title":"UFC Vegas 61 weigh-in results: Mackenzie Dern, Yan Xiaonan on point for main event, one bout canceled","date":"September 30, 2022","format":false,"excerpt":"Mackenzie Dern and Yan Xiaonan are set for a key strawweight contest. The UFC Vegas 61 headliners both hit the non-title mark at 115.5 pounds at Friday's official weigh-ins for the UFC APEX event in Las Vegas. This is Dern's second main event opportunity while Yan closes out a UFC\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Sports"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":83085,"url":"https:\/\/harchi90.com\/ufc-fight-night-211-weigh-ins-perfect-session-for-dern-xiaonan-main\/","url_meta":{"origin":84474,"position":4},"title":"UFC Fight Night 211 weigh-ins: Perfect session for Dern-Xiaonan main","date":"September 30, 2022","format":false,"excerpt":"LAS VEGAS \u2013 MMA Junkie was on scene and reporting live from Friday's official UFC Fight Night 211 fighter weigh-ins, where all 24 fighters on the card hit their marks. In the main event, Mackenzie Dern (12-2 MMA, 7-2 UFC) takes on Yan Xiaonan (15-3 MMA, 6-2 UFC) in a\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Sports"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/mmajunkie.usatoday.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/91\/2022\/09\/UFC-Fight-Night-211-Stoliarenko-vs-Chandler.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":83043,"url":"https:\/\/harchi90.com\/ufc-vegas-61-weigh-in-results-dern-and-yan-make-weight-one-fight-cancelled\/","url_meta":{"origin":84474,"position":5},"title":"UFC Vegas 61 weigh-in results: Dern and Yan make weight, one fight cancelled","date":"September 30, 2022","format":false,"excerpt":"Ok, so the UFC are doing their latest event behind closed doors \u2014 possibly at the behest of billionaire Mark Zuckerberg. 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