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.
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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.