While most three-year-old children play in the sandbox, Mackenzie Dern was playing on the mats. Under the tutelage of her father Wellington “Megaton” Dias, a multiple-time Pan-Am gold medalist in jiu-jitsu who earned his nickname because the power of his slams were compared to the blast of a nuclear bomb, Dern has been learning jiu-jitsu for 21 years and has become one of the most accomplished jiu-jitsu practitioners in the world.

Since making her transition to mixed martial arts in June of 2016, the hype surrounding Dern has been huge and the expectations sky high.

While she is aware of the expectations and admits to wanting to be a UFC champion in the future, Dern is resisting the temptation to buy into the enormous hype that surrounds her.

“I don’t feel the pressure, I definitely know that there are expectations there and everything. I feel almost more pressure on myself to make sure that I stay grounded,” Dern told The TSN MMA Show. “I don’t want to get too excited and think that I’m Mike Tyson or Muhammad Ali or that I’m going to be ready for the title fight in two fights. I just want to make sure that even if I win, that I know that I still have so much to grow.”

Dern’s jiu-jitsu is world class, but the rest of her game still has room for improvement. Her striking still needs to become more technical and her wrestling is a work in progress.

“I think my most improved thing is my standup. Each time, I’m getting more and more confident in my punches. I always felt like 115 pound girls, we don’t really have too much strength in our punches, you don’t see too many knockouts,” said Dern. “I train with tough girls that are in the UFC, Cortney Casey, Lauren Murphy and they punch me so hard, so I never really thought that my punches had much power behind them, but more and more I’m seeing combinations. I think that’s the biggest change that I’ve seen and what I’d like to get better at the most is my cage work, the takedowns, being able to transition well, sometimes I think the takedowns can get sloppy.”

That sort of awareness about the holes in her game and her willingness to improve them under the tutelage of John Crouch, the head coach of the MMA Lab in Phoenix, which produced WEC and UFC lightweight champion Benson Henderson, is what will catapult her into the upper echelon of the women’s 115-pound strawweight division. With improvement needed in striking and wrestling, Dern recognizes that jiu-jitsu is her biggest strength and looks to impose that on her opponents.

“My goal is to be the best fighter possible, standing up or on the ground. I have three submissions out of five fights, I would like to be able to really impose my jiu-jitsu,” said Dern, “People respect my jiu-jitsu so much, sometimes it’s hard and their camp is just training jiu-jitsu defense and takedown defense. It’s definitely way harder when they are protective.”

Dern’s father has been a major influence on her life, but thus far, has refused to watch her compete in MMA in person.

“He won’t be here in Vegas for this fight. I think it’s really nerve wracking for a father to see his daughter get punched in the face,” laughed Dern. “I think also for him to see me throughout the whole weight cut, it’s not an easy job, it’s always kind of hard for me to make 115. So just to be here and see me suffer and to not know what’s going to happen, you have more of a chance to get injured in MMA than in jiu-jitsu, he feels better to watch to watch from home with friends and family. I definitely want him to come see me sooner than later, I don’t want to one day go to fight for the belt and he’s never seen me fight, then I’d be a little superstitious.”

With her lineage, elite jiu-jitsu skills and marketability, Dern has drawn comparisons to Ronda Rousey, who was a judo Olympian and whose mother was a world judo champion.

“It’s flattering, I think she’s such a pioneer for women’s MMA and everything that she’s done with women in the UFC. For me, I’m inspired to do at least how much she’s done, if not more. I’d like to even accomplish more than she’s done and hopefully inspire more and more people,” said Dern when asked about the Rousey comparisons. “I just hope people know that we are totally different people, different personalities with different obstacles in life, different backgrounds. I really like how they think of her when they see me, but in my mind, I know that we’re different and I hope everybody else can see that too.”

Dern was originally scheduled to be on the pay-per-view card of UFC 222, but when Max Holloway got injured and two new fights were scheduled, Dern ended up on the main event of the preliminary card, which will air on TSN in Canada.

“I’m definitely happy about that. When we were talking about my first fight, they wanted me to fight on the card that just happened (UFC Fight Night in Orlando, which aired on FOX), because it was more views,” said Dern. “Of course it’s not good that (Max Holloway) got hurt or anything, but the fact that it ended up being like this works out really good. I’m excited to have a lot of people witness my debut”

Dern will make her debut on the preliminary card of UFC 222, which airs on TSN5 beginning at 8:00 pm et.