UFC 298 Prelims: Amanda Lemos Busts Up Mackenzie Dern

Amanda Lemos came into UFC 298 looking to confirm her place as a top contender in the UFC strawweight division. Mission accomplished, though Mackenzie Dern made her earn it.

For the first several minutes it looked as though Lemos (14-3-1, 8-3 UFC) was in for a night of easy work, as she hobbled Dern (13-5, 8-5 UFC) with heavy leg kicks, stung her with punches and left Dern struggling to lay a hand on her. Everything turned in an instant, however, when Dern ducked under for a double-leg takedown near the midpoint of the round. From there, the multiple-time grappling champion controlled the remainder of the round, keeping Lemos under heavy pressure and constantly threatening to pass her guard. Lemos went right back to work on the feet in the second round, nailing Dern with a punch combination that left her on her back, face swelling up and wincing in obvious pain. Lemos followed up with standing-to-ground punches with referee Mike Beltran looking on, but Lemos followed her foe to the ground, which ended up giving Dern a chance to survive, recover and even sweep to top position near the end of the round.

Dern came out for Round 3 with face beaten nearly unrecognizable, but game and aggressive, and managed to drag the fight into her preferred territory with a haymaker and guard pull. She went to work from there, threatening with a kneebar attempt that kept Lemos in survival mode for much of the round, then allowed her to assume top position. Lemos escaped and even made it back to her feet briefly, but a clear Dern round sent the outcome to the judges with their work cut out for them. They returned unanimous scores of 29-28 in favor of Lemos, who put her title fight loss to Weili Zhang in the rearview with the win. Dern, who stepped up for Tatiana Suarez on a month’s notice, lost back-to-back fights for the first time in her career.

The lone heavyweight bout of UFC 298 stemmed from a matchup that sounded like something from a martial arts movie, as Junior Tafa (5-2, 1-2 UFC) stepped up the day before the fight, taking the place of his injured older brother Justin to face Marcos Rogerio de Lima (22-9-1, 11-7 UFC). There would be no Hollywood ending, however, as “Pezao” hobbled his opponent almost immediately with a stream of calf kicks. By the midpoint of the first round, Tafa could barely stand on his left leg, let alone plant and return fire effectively. De Lima’s choice to bring the action to the ground sealed a dominant frame but proved almost a reprieve for Tafa, as the Brazilian landed ground strikes and threatened to advance to mount before riding out the duration in top position. Round 2 offered more of the same, and with Tafa’s left leg already badly compromised, it took only one or two more kicks to put him on his back, grimacing in pain. Referee Frank Trigg looked on as “Pezao” poured on the hammerfists, and with Tafa unable or unwilling to rise, called a stop to the mauling at 1 minute, 14 seconds.

Rinya Nakamura (9-0, 3-0 UFC) put on a stifling, smothering performance, taking all three rounds from Carlos Vera (11-4, 0-1 UFC) and leaving no question over who was the better man. It was a methodical performance, as the standout wrestler grounded Vera at will but struggled to do much damage from top position thanks to Vera’s constant leglock attempts, reminiscent of his mentor, Ryan Hall. Nakamura was clearly uncomfortable with his foe’s unorthodox grappling in the early going, but as he grew accustomed to it, he became more and more dominant, taking Vera’s back in the second and third rounds and threatening briefly with choke attempts. While the Anaheim crowd grew audibly restless over the course of the fight, the winner was never in doubt, and Nakamura prevailed with 30-27 scores from all three judges.

Mingyang Zhang (17-6, 2-0 UFC) needed less than half a round to announce his presence in the UFC light heavyweight division, sparking Brendson Ribeiro (16-5 1 NC, 0-1 UFC) with a massive right-left combination. The action was fast and frenetic for as long as it lasted, and Ribeiro caught Zhang cleanly more than once in exchanges in the pocket, but the Brazilian had no answer when Zhang landed a pair of hooks that leveled him there he stood. It might have been enough for a walk-off knockout, but Zhang left no doubt, dropping three heavy hammerfists that spurred referee Mike Beltran into action for the stoppage. The end came at 1:41, marking a triumphant return for Zhang, who won on “Road to UFC” in 2022 but had been on the shelf ever since due to a series of injuries and visa issues. The 25-year-old from Shandong province on China’s east coast now sports a 10-fight win streak overall and while his post-fight call for a fight with light heavyweight champ Alex Pereira at UFC 300 may have been hilariously over-optimistic, he certainly set himself apart as someone to watch in a wide-open division.

In a battle of Contender Series products, Season 7’s Danny Barlow (8-0, 1-0 UFC) kept his record spotless, sparking Season 5 alum Josh Quinlan (6-2 1 NC, 1-2 UFC) in the third round of their welterweight showcase. For two rounds and change, Barlow got the better of Quinlan in a back-and-forth kickboxing match that simmered but never quite boiled over, as “LeftHand2God” landed plenty of his namesake blows and a half-dozen flying knees on his very game opponent. That all changed early in the third, however. Barlow caught “Bushido” with a piston-like left hand that sent him careening across the cage, then gave chase, pouring on accurate follow-up strikes as referee Jason Herzog looked on closely. Herzog gave Quinlan ample chances to recover, but after a lengthy, punishing series of punches that caused his face to swell alarmingly, he interposed himself for a standing TKO stoppage at 1:38 of Round 3.

Welsh prospect Oban Elliott (10-2, 1-0 UFC) made his successful UFC debut at the expense of Valentine Woodburn (7-2, 0-2 UFC), though he had to walk through some fire to get there and in the end, it was the stark disparity in their ground games that carried the day for “The Welsh Gangster.” A wild start saw Woodburn shrug off a head kick, rock Elliott badly with a trio of punches and swarm for the finish. Elliott survived, secured a takedown and spent the balance of the round working for a variety of chokes from back mount. While the submission eluded him, he took mount late in the round and landed some solid ground-and-pound before the horn. The second round was more measured, with Woodburn looking fatigued and Elliott more cautious, but Elliott again hauled Woodburn to the canvas in the middle of the round and went on to dominate from there. Woodburn managed to make things interesting with a sweep in the back half of Round 3, but he was too spent to take advantage, and Elliott prevailed in a unanimous decision (30-27, 30-27, 29-28).

In the women’s flyweight opener, Miranda Maverick (13-5, 6-3 UFC) used speed, footwork and volume to take a clear-cut decision over Andrea Lee (13-9, 5-7 UFC). For the majority of the fight, Maverick controlled the pace, keeping Lee on the back foot and stepping fearlessly into the pocket to land left hands on her much taller foe. Lee had her moments as well, including a mat return via slam in the first round and a triangle choke attempt that had Maverick on the defensive for most of the final minute of the fight, right up to the horn. Those moments were too few, however, and the judges awarded the fight to Maverick with 30-27, 30-27 and 29-28 scorecards. With the win, Maverick’s second in a row, she elevated her mark 4-1 in the last two years; Lee’s fourth consecutive loss over that same stretch left her future in the UFC in doubt.