For large spells of Mackenzie Dern’s see-saw UFC career, she lacked a key characteristic that defines many champions.

After making her debut in the promotion in 2018, the American-Brazilian had a magnificent start where she won six of her first seven fights to get to the cusp of a title shot.

Dern was tipped to be the strawweight division’s next big star, following in the footsteps of greats such as Joanna Jedrzejczyk, Rose Namajunas and Zhang Weili, but four defeats in her next six fights saw her crowning moment put on ice.

Looking back, the 33-year-old puts her defeats down to a lack of composure.

“I’ve always been – and people who have seen my fights think it – an emotional fighter,” Dern tells BBC Sport.

“So I come out nice and technical but after two or three punches land, I would go into red mode and go forward.

“Basically the whole strategy goes out the window.”

It wasn’t until 2024 that a change in Dern’s social life coincided with her growth as a fighter.

Dern started playing no-limit Texas hold’em poker – a card game that mixes elements of gambling, mathematics and psychology.

She only plays outside of training camps, but since starting has won three straight fights, including victory over Virna Jandiroba last October to realise her dream of becoming a UFC champion.

Dern says the skills she learned altered her mindset when it came to training, sparring and competition.

On Saturday at UFC 330 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, Dern will be hoping to apply what she’s learned in the first defence of her belt against Canada’s Gillian Robertson.

“In poker you need to be able to control your emotions. There’s times I’d have a pair of aces and go all in, but then no-one jumps in and you get very little money for it,” says Dern.

“You have to learn how to extract and read people, and that’s something I’ve been able to put into my fighting.

“I’ve learned how to be more calm. Poker is a patience game. That emotional part and reading people is something I didn’t have but since poker, I’ve been able to implement that into my fighting.”

Although Dern has found success in poker, it comes with risks – such as problem gambling.

A 2018 study published in Australia found 39% of the regular poker players it surveyed had moderate to severe gambling problems, while about a quarter had caused financial problems for themselves or their households.

Dern’s experience of poker helping her development is similar to Brazil’s Caio Borralho, who credits strategy games such as chess as being key to his ascendancy up the middleweight rankings.

Borralho says strategic planning is “the most important thing” in fighting, and while it took Dern the majority of her career to acknowledge this, she is now reaping the benefits.

“I just played for fun and got interested. It’s just like fighting, the first few times I was making mistakes,” added Dern.

“But then you start to see the high risk-low reward and low risk-high reward, and not just focus on what you do, but focus on what else can be possible.

“I didn’t even think ‘oh, I’m going to do this in my fighting’. I just felt how my mindset had changed. I think it really correlates with me playing poker more often.”

The bout between Dern and Robertson will serve as the co-main event at the Xfinity Mobile Arena, with Islam Makhachev defending his welterweight title against Ireland’s Ian Machado Garry at the top of the card.

Former lightweight champion Makhachev is making the first defence of his belt after moving up in weight last year, while Machado Garry is aiming to become the first Irish champion since Conor McGregor.

If you have been affected by issues raised in this article, there is information and support available on BBC Action Line.