Black belt world champion Mackenzie Dern will make her professional MMA debut tonight at Legacy Fighting Championship 58. 

The 115lb fight, which will go down in Lakes Charles, Louisiana, will match her against fellow debut fighter Kenia Rosas. 

Mackenzie--a multiple-time world champion in IBJJF and UAEJJF tournaments, and also the 2015 ADCC champion--has been preparing for her fight debut at the MMA Lab in Phoenix, Arizona, which is home to former UFC champion Benson Henderson. 





"My dad's reaction when I wanted to go into MMA was, 'You're too pretty'," Mackenzie said.

Mackenzie's father, Wellington 'Megaton' Dias, isn't overly excited about his daughter making her pro fighting debut.

This is a bad, bad deal man. As a father, I really don't want to see her doing MMA. But I support her in whatever she does.

 
"She's a very pretty girl--I think she got my genes! No, I think she's very pretty, and it would hurt me pretty bad to see her get hurt." 

Henderson, who oversaw much of her training at MMA Lab, is confident she'll do well in the cage. 

"We work on a lot of stuff in practice. Being able to see her apply that in a sparring session, that's so hard to do," Henderson said. "Even jiu-jitsu guys need to learn a new technique and drill it and drill it and then you try and do it live. 

"For Mackenzie, she was able to apply some of the stuff she was learning--maybe she didn't nail it, maybe it wasn't working out for her, she didn't land all her punches and kicks--but she threw them; she was attempting it. That's pretty hard to do when someone is standing in front of you, punching you back." 

Mackenzie will make her MMA debut tonight at Legacy Fighting Championships 58. Watch the documentary "True Warrior" and get to know her better ahead of her big fight.