Mackenzie Dern isn't just a UFC champion, she's now officially defended that title as well.

Saturday's UFC 330 co-main event saw Dern earn a one-sided decision win over Gillian Robertson to successfully defend the strawweight belt she won in a vacant title fight by defeating Virna Jandiroba at UFC 321 this past October. That title was vacated by Zhang Weili, who dominated the 115-pound division before moving up a weight class in a failed bid to dethrone flyweight queen Valentina Shevchenko.

At the moment, it's unclear whether Zhang is planning to return at 115 or 125 pounds, if at all. So does Dern feel like that matchup has to happen for her to be considered the strawweight division's true champion?

“No,†Dern said at the evening's post-fight press conference. “I felt like the champion before when I won the belt, but I just think I solidified myself even more as the champ for the fans, that they would say that, but I don't think I need to win Weili to be a champ. I mean, people retire, I'm not saying that that's what she's going to do but the more defenses I can get at this, whoever comes next, I think I proved that I was the champ.

“Gillian was on a five-fight win streak, Virna was on a five-fight win streak, I just became a four-fight win streak. I don't know how much more I need to do to prove that.â€

Whenever Dern is booked to defend her title again, Zhang is the most obvious candidate to challenge her. However, other contenders have made strong cases, including Tatiana Suarez, Alexia Thainara, and blue-chip prospect Fatima Kline.

Dern isn't sure who she'll fight next, but she knows when she wants to come back.

“I don't hope for anybody. Whoever the UFC gives to me, I'll be ready,†Dern said, later adding, “Ideally I would like to fight probably March, so maybe in six months if I can get maybe two fights a year, that would be good.â€

The only caveat Dern would put on an otherwise successful evening is that she wasn't able to put Robertson away inside the distance. Dern threatened with a couple of tight chokes and even worked for a leg lock at one point, but Robertson managed to make it to the final buzzer.

Ultimately, Dern is satisfied at having done enough to officially log a UFC title defense and is eager to continue her evolution.

“Honestly, it feels good, but it could feel even better if I would have got the submission,†Dern said. “I'm somewhat that's always looking for the best performance possible, so I'm happy with my wrestling, I'm happy with I guess the dominance of the fight, but I wanted to submit Gillian, for sure. I still see lots of things that I want to get better just to be able to defend it more and more times, but definitely feel like I solidified myself as the champ.â€

Islam Makhachev respects all of his opponents, but that doesn't mean he needs to express those feelings at the beginning and end of every single round.

But that's exactly what Ian Machado Garry did on Saturday night as he was constantly shaking Makhachev's hand, hugging him or dapping him up during their fight. Garry apparently even offered words of encouragement at certain points during the five-round battle, and while Makhachev appreciated his opponen's graciousness, he wishes that was all saved until the UFC 330 fight was over.

“Honestly, I don't understand,†Makhachev said about Garry's actions during the UFC 330 post-fight press conference. “This is a fight. This is not something we have to hug each other every round. We're going to war. We're going to break the face, to break the eye. I respect all my opponents. But [maybe he's young]. He respects too much.

“I respect him. He's a good guy. Very kind. But this is a war. Look at my face. I just come to beat everything. It's not something you have to play. This is a fight. This is not a game.â€

While Garry's actions didn't change the result in the fight, Makhachev gave him credit for a job well done on Saturday night.

Throughout the 25 minute battle, Garry showcased solid takedown defense while stopping Makhchev from ever getting close to a potential submission.

That said, Makhachev was growing frustrated with Garry's refusal to really engage with him, which made it that much harder for him to set up grappling exchanges or other parts of his game plan he wanted to execute.

“Ian is a good opponent,†Makhachev said. “Very hard to fight with someone who stands and waits. He's just waiting and very hard to show a good performance with someone like that. He stands, I see his leg, I try to take him down. He has some good defense but very hard to show a good performance with someone like that.â€

Makhachev also said there were some slightly dirty moves happening in the octagon at UFC 330, especially when Garry apparently head butted him when they were battling for position on the ground.

When the fight ended, Makhachev realized that his nose was busted up and he believes that was a direct result of the blow Garry landed after they hit the ground during a takedown.

“He gave me too many scratches,†Makhachev said. “He gave me a very hard head butt at the end of the fourth round when I made him slam, you can see he gave me a back head butt. In the fight, I don't remember when my nose is bleeding and right away the blood is coming out. I thought maybe I broke the nose or something.

“He gave me a very hard head butt. It's OK. Hard fight. It makes you improve and I feel I improved.â€

As far as the future goes, Makhachev isn't slowing down or capping how many more fights he might have before retirement. Instead, the reigning UFC welterweight champion is already thinking about how he can get better from this performance and prepare for his next opponent as soon as he's healthy and ready to go again.

“I still have to gain some weight, try to be more big, more power and I have time,†Makhachev said. “What this fight showed me and showed everybody, it's not my hardest fight. It doesn't matter how this fight is going to go, easy or hard, from the first minute to the last minute to the last second, I'm going to war. I'm going to fight every second.â€