Piera Rodriguez wins lighting-marred UFC Halloween fight, eyes Gillian Robertson and Mackenzie Dern

Piera Rodriguez didn't let a brief power outage and any other elements distract her from her fight against Talita Alencar, emerging victorious at UFC Halloween in Vegas on October 31. 

Rodriguez subsequently signaled that she'd like to avenge her first MMA defeat, a submission loss against Gillian Robertson in April of 2023. The Venezuelan combatant also expressed interest in facing reigning UFC women's strawweight champion, Mackenzie Dern. 

Piera Rodriguez displays striking prowess, beating Talita Alencar in lighting-marred UFC Halloween clash

Round one of the women's strawweight MMA matchup between Piera Rodriguez and Talita Alencar saw a partial power outage, where some of the lighting at the UFC's Meta Apex -- the venue where the fights were held -- went out. 

Nevertheless, both fighters continued, with the lighting eventually returning to normal. Rodriguez ended up outworking her foe over the course of three rounds, extensively showcasing her striking skills to bag the unanimous decision victory. 

Currently, Rodriguez stands at No. 10 in the UFC women's strawweight division, per the official Meta UFC rankings. Meanwhile, Alencar is at the No. 14 position. 

Piera Rodriguez calls out Gillian Robertson, confident about potential Mackenzie Dern fight

Speaking to the UFC after her win, Piera Rodriguez suggested that she's feeling great and is happy that she embraced the game plan, didn't forgo technique, and followed her coach's instructions. She seemingly lauded Alencar's durability, indicating that she was tough to finish. 

"La Fiera" further implied that Alencar is an excellent grappler and she had to refrain from getting too aggressive -- a tendency she admitted to -- in her pursuit of a stoppage win. The strawweight reaffirmed that she has the greatest coaches guiding her and stayed true to their strategy. 

The 33-year-old noted that she's put together a four-fight win streak, which, perhaps, should be a five-fight win streak if it weren't for some mistakes she made.

For context, Rodriguez was referring to her Disqualification (DQ) defeat against Ariane Carnelossi back in August of 2023. That UFC strawweight matchup witnessed her lose due to hitting Carnelossi with an illegal maneuver, headbutts. 

Well, outlining her future plans, Rodriguez stated, "I just wanna move forward and keep climbing in the rankings. I want a top-five (opponent) next, and then go for the title." 

She added, "Man, I can fight for the title tomorrow if they want me. Mackenzie, I can go any day, anytime. If not, I would like to have a rematch with Gillian Robertson. Because she's the only one, who, like, took my undefeated (MMA record) away. So I want the rematch." 

The striking savant said, "That (Gillian Robertson fight) was not a healthy fight for me because I was going through some stuff in my life. But I would love to have a healthy rematch against that one." 

Watch Piera Rodriguez discuss her potential next fights and more below: 

“I just want to move forward.” Piera Rodriguez has her eyes on UFC gold after picking up her fourth win in a row. #UFCVegas123 Complete Prelim Results ➡️ https://t.co/GXd8k9czyu Official Scorecards: https://t.co/0jl6F5aVPo https://t.co/yaganp5ZaK

— UFC News (@UFCNews) October 31, 2026