Lemos edges durable Dern in UFC 298 war; Barlow thrills with knockout in debut

Amanda Lemos and Mackenzie Dern went back and forth in an all-Brazilian strawweight contest with Lemos getting her hand raised via unanimous decision in the featured UFC 298 preliminary bout Saturday night at Anaheim’s Honda Center.

Dern was coming off a knockout loss to former champion Jessica Andrade and proved her mettle by taking on another power puncher in Lemos who successfully bounced back from a decision loss to reigning 115-pound champion Weili Zhang from last August.

Lemos battered Dern’s lead leg with kicks early and defended any of Dern’s grappling advances before catching her opponent rushing in flailing punches early in the second round and would’ve finished the fight were it not for Dern’s toughness. 

There was some slight confusion as the judges’ decision was being read by Bruce Buffer as both women celebrated when Lemos’s name was called. Dern has now lost two in a row and four of her past six yet remains one of the more popular fighters within the women’s weight classes.

In other UFC 298 preliminary action, Danny Barlow exceeded expectations and lived up to his “LeftHand2God” nickname in his first UFC appearance, knocking out Josh Quinlan with a torrent of left hands in the third round of their welterweight bout.

Barlow, who improved to 8-0 as a pro in MMA, operated from southpaw as Quinlan fought primarily from an orthodox stance but would occasionally switch. Barlow’s hand speed was the big difference in this 170-pound contest.

The promising 28-year-old claimed in his post-fight interview with Joe Rogan that he broke his arm in the opening round. He did not specify which arm, although his injury clearly did not impact his ability to both compete and celebrate.

China’s Zhang Mingyang maintained his 100 per cent finishing rate with a quick first-round knockout of Brendson Ribeiro in their light-heavyweight contest. The fight only lasted 101 seconds and Zhang connected on the fight-ending combination mere seconds after complaining about a potential eye-poke.

The 25-year-old touted prospect became the first Chinese fighter ever to compete in the UFC’s 205-pound division. He pleaded to UFC president Dana White for a $50,000 post-fight bonus, a “money fight” in his next outing and evening, with a smile on his face and possibly tongue in cheek, called out the division’s reigning champion Alex Pereira and said he’d be willing to step in on short notice for a featured bout at UFC 300.

Zhang earned his shot at the UFC after winning on the first episode of Road to UFC. He has now won 10 consecutive bouts by first-round KO/TKO and looks to be willing to trade punches with anyone in front of him in the cage.

Junior Tafa certainly gained some new fans this week after replacing his older brother, Justin Tafa, and accepting a matchup with Marcos Rogerio de Lima on one day’s notice. Unfortunately for the younger Tafa, de Lima rendered his left leg useless with repeated heavy low leg kicks to earn a second-round technical knockout victory.

With Australia’s Alexander Volkanovski and Robert Whittaker, who has ties to Australia and his native New Zealand, both fixtures on the UFC 298 main card, there was a strong Oceania presence in the arena cheering on New Zealand’s Tafa.

The 27-year-old had been training for a fight against Karl Williams at an upcoming March 16 UFC Fight Night event. It is unclear if he will still be able to compete at that event. Tafa was initially only at the event to help corner his brother who is three years older with much more UFC experience.

De Lima, 38, was coming off a 33-second knockout loss to Derrick Lewis at UFC 291.

You can add Rinya Nakamura’s name to the list of quality prospects in the UFC men’s bantamweight division after his win over Carlos Vera. The 28-year-old used his Olympic-calibre wrestling base to control the submission artist Vera and win a dominant judges’ decision. 

Nakamura spent much of the fight fending off kneebar and ankle lock attempts from Vera who had been training with leg lock specialist Ryan Hall. Nakamura had been an Olympic wrestling hopeful for Japan, only turning his attention to mixed martial arts after the 2020 Olympics were postponed. Nakamura was the biggest betting favourite on the card by a wide margin. He has nine wins since debuting in the sport in May 2021

Former UFC middleweight Chris Leben was one of the three California State Athletic judges for Nakamura vs. Vera. Leben notably fought UFC champions Anderson Silva and Michael Bisping and holds a win over Wanderlei Silva who happened to also be in the building Saturday, being named to the UFC Hall of Fame Class of 2024.

Leben and his two colleagues all scored the bout 30-27 for Nakamura, a clean sweep of the scorecards. Nakamura said he wasn’t satisfied with his performance and claimed he injured his right hand when he landed a punch early in the fight.

Miranda Maverick handed Andrea Lee her fourth consecutive loss by decision in the UFC with a unanimous decision in the opening bout of the prelims. Maverick, 26, has now won four of her past five since a two-fight losing streak in 2021. 

Oban Elliott overcame a frenetic start to the opening round of his welterweight contest versus Val Woodburn, including a powerful flurry of punches from his opponent, but managed to earn a win in his UFC debut. The Welsh newcomer was knocked down early but recovered quickly and took the fight to the mat and racked up more than four minutes of control time in the first five minutes.

Elliott, who came up through the Cage Warriors promotion and earned his UFC contract with a win last summer on Dana White’s Contender Series, controlled the majority of the final two rounds with superior grappling position and took home a unanimous decision. The 26-year-old has six consecutive wins and described getting his hand raised Saturday as “the greatest moment of my life.”

Woodburn is now 0-2 in the UFC after making an unsuccessful debut on short notice at UFC 290 last July when he only lasted 38 seconds against touted up-and-comer Bo Nickal.