Amanda Lemos (red gloves) defeated Mackenzie Dern (blue gloves) by unanimous decision during UFC 298: Volkanovski vs. Topuria at the Honda Center in Anaheim, CA., on Saturday Feb. 17, 2024. (Photo by Hans Gutknecht, Los Angeles Daily News/SCNG)
Amanda Lemos (red gloves) defeated Mackenzie Dern (blue gloves) by unanimous decision during UFC 298: Volkanovski vs. Topuria at the Honda Center in Anaheim, CA., on Saturday Feb. 17, 2024. (Photo by Hans Gutknecht, Los Angeles Daily News/SCNG)
Amanda Lemos (red gloves) defeated Mackenzie Dern (blue gloves) by unanimous decision during UFC 298: Volkanovski vs. Topuria at the Honda Center in Anaheim, CA., on Saturday Feb. 17, 2024. (Photo by Hans Gutknecht, Los Angeles Daily News/SCNG)
Amanda Lemos (red gloves) defeated Mackenzie Dern (blue gloves) by unanimous decision during UFC 298: Volkanovski vs. Topuria at the Honda Center in Anaheim, CA., on Saturday Feb. 17, 2024. (Photo by Hans Gutknecht, Los Angeles Daily News/SCNG)
Amanda Lemos (red gloves) defeated Mackenzie Dern (blue gloves) by unanimous decision during UFC 298: Volkanovski vs. Topuria at the Honda Center in Anaheim, CA., on Saturday Feb. 17, 2024. (Photo by Hans Gutknecht, Los Angeles Daily News/SCNG)
Amanda Lemos (red gloves) defeated Mackenzie Dern (blue gloves) by unanimous decision during UFC 298: Volkanovski vs. Topuria at the Honda Center in Anaheim, CA., on Saturday Feb. 17, 2024. (Photo by Hans Gutknecht, Los Angeles Daily News/SCNG)
Amanda Lemos (red gloves) defeated Mackenzie Dern (blue gloves) by unanimous decision during UFC 298: Volkanovski vs. Topuria at the Honda Center in Anaheim, CA., on Saturday Feb. 17, 2024. (Photo by Hans Gutknecht, Los Angeles Daily News/SCNG)
Amanda Lemos (red gloves) and Mackenzie Dern (blue gloves) react after Lemos defeated Dern by judges unanimous decision during UFC 298: Volkanovski vs. Topuria at the Honda Center in Anaheim, CA., on Saturday Feb. 17, 2024. (Photo by Hans Gutknecht, Los Angeles Daily News/SCNG)
Anthony Hernandez (red gloves) defeated Roman Kopylov (blue gloves) by rear naked choke during UFC 298: Volkanovski vs. Topuria at the Honda Center in Anaheim, CA., on Saturday Feb. 17, 2024. (Photo by Hans Gutknecht, Los Angeles Daily News/SCNG)
Anthony Hernandez (red gloves) defeated Roman Kopylov (blue gloves) by rear naked choke during UFC 298: Volkanovski vs. Topuria at the Honda Center in Anaheim, CA., on Saturday Feb. 17, 2024. (Photo by Hans Gutknecht, Los Angeles Daily News/SCNG)
Marcos Rogério de Lima (red gloves) defeats Junior Tafa (blue gloves) via referee stoppage TKO during UFC 298: Volkanovski vs. Topuria at the Honda Center in Anaheim, CA., on Saturday Feb. 17, 2024. (Photo by Hans Gutknecht, Los Angeles Daily News/SCNG)
Marcos Rogério de Lima (red gloves) defeats Junior Tafa (blue gloves) via referee stoppage TKO during UFC 298: Volkanovski vs. Topuria at the Honda Center in Anaheim, CA., on Saturday Feb. 17, 2024. (Photo by Hans Gutknecht, Los Angeles Daily News/SCNG)
Marcos Rogério de Lima (red gloves) defeats Junior Tafa (blue gloves) via referee stoppage TKO during UFC 298: Volkanovski vs. Topuria at the Honda Center in Anaheim, CA., on Saturday Feb. 17, 2024. (Photo by Hans Gutknecht, Los Angeles Daily News/SCNG)
Marcos Rogério de Lima (red gloves) defeats Junior Tafa (blue gloves) via referee stoppage TKO during UFC 298: Volkanovski vs. Topuria at the Honda Center in Anaheim, CA., on Saturday Feb. 17, 2024. (Photo by Hans Gutknecht, Los Angeles Daily News/SCNG)
Anthony Hernandez (red gloves) defeated Roman Kopylov (blue gloves) by rear naked choke during UFC 298: Volkanovski vs. Topuria at the Honda Center in Anaheim, CA., on Saturday Feb. 17, 2024. (Photo by Hans Gutknecht, Los Angeles Daily News/SCNG)
Anthony Hernandez (red gloves) defeated Roman Kopylov (blue gloves) by rear naked choke during UFC 298: Volkanovski vs. Topuria at the Honda Center in Anaheim, CA., on Saturday Feb. 17, 2024. (Photo by Hans Gutknecht, Los Angeles Daily News/SCNG)
Anthony Hernandez (red gloves) defeated Roman Kopylov (blue gloves) by rear naked choke during UFC 298: Volkanovski vs. Topuria at the Honda Center in Anaheim, CA., on Saturday Feb. 17, 2024. (Photo by Hans Gutknecht, Los Angeles Daily News/SCNG)
Marcos Rogério de Lima (red gloves) defeats Junior Tafa (blue gloves) via referee stoppage TKO during UFC 298: Volkanovski vs. Topuria at the Honda Center in Anaheim, CA., on Saturday Feb. 17, 2024. (Photo by Hans Gutknecht, Los Angeles Daily News/SCNG)
Marcos Rogério de Lima (red gloves) defeats Junior Tafa (blue gloves) via referee stoppage TKO during UFC 298: Volkanovski vs. Topuria at the Honda Center in Anaheim, CA., on Saturday Feb. 17, 2024. (Photo by Hans Gutknecht, Los Angeles Daily News/SCNG)
Anthony Hernandez (red gloves) defeated Roman Kopylov (blue gloves) by rear naked choke during UFC 298: Volkanovski vs. Topuria at the Honda Center in Anaheim, CA., on Saturday Feb. 17, 2024. (Photo by Hans Gutknecht, Los Angeles Daily News/SCNG)
Marcos Rogério de Lima (red gloves) defeats Junior Tafa (blue gloves) via referee stoppage TKO during UFC 298: Volkanovski vs. Topuria at the Honda Center in Anaheim, CA., on Saturday Feb. 17, 2024. (Photo by Hans Gutknecht, Los Angeles Daily News/SCNG)
ANAHEIM — For three rounds, Mackenzie Dern and Amanda Lemos gave it everything at UFC 298.
With knockdowns and takedowns for each strawweight, the crowd at Honda Center gave its full approval at the end, as Lemos won a unanimous decision in the featured prelim fight Saturday night.
All three judges scored it 29-18 for the 36-year-old Brazilian, who was coming off a lopsided unanimous-decision loss six months to 115-pound champion Weili Zhang at UFC 292.
Dern (13-5) somehow found away to survive the second round as she was dropped twice, the second time bringing her hands to her face with what appeared to be a broken nose. Lemos (14-3-1) tried to end the fight, but Dern fended her off.
The third round saw Dern catch an off-balance Lemos and drop her with a wild overhand right. Lemos popped up and dumped Dern to the canvas, only to have the Brazilian jiu-jitsu whiz gain top control for much of the ground.
Dern, 30, had just a four-week camp – as opposed to her routine 10-week camp – after the Huntington Beach resident stepped in to replace the injured Tatiana Suarez. She has now lost consecutive fights for the first time in her UFC career, in which she has an 8-5 record.
Rogerio de Lima chops away for TKO
Marcos Rogerio de Lima attacked the legs of Junior Tafa from the start, wobbling the New Zealand heavyweight before finishing the job in the second round.
Tafa, filling in on a day’s notice for his injured brother Junior Tafa, was affected early by the heavy lumber ripping his left lead leg and ankle. He limped to his corner at the end of the opening round and referee Frank Trigg gave him a long look before starting the next round.
Rogerio de Lima (22-10-1) went back to the wounded limb, kicking it out from under a pained and fallen Tafa (5-2) and pausing, then closing it out with some hammerfists before Trigg stepped in at 1:14 of the second round.
Nakamura grinds out a win
Rinya Nakamura used his exemplary grappling to secure a unanimous decision over Carlos Vera and stay undefeated.
The former Japanese wrestling standout received 30-27 scores from all three judges as Nakamura (9-0) had Vera (11-4) on the mat and was in control all three rounds.
Zhang gets powerful first win
Zhang Mingyang and Brendson Ribeiro, both making their UFC debuts, let their fists fly early in the opening round before Zhang dropped the Brazilian light heavyweight en route to a crowd-awakening win.
Ribeiro (15-6, 1 NC) appeared to be getting the better of the exchanges in the opening minute before Zhang (17-6) followed a left jab with a counter right and left hook, flooring Ribeiro and following with a couple strikes before the fight was called at 1:47 of the first round.
Barlow stops Quinlan
Welterweight Danny Barlow made an impressive UFC debut, peppering Josh Quinlan for two rounds before landing several power shots in the final round to stay unbeaten with the TKO victory.
After using his jab effectively, Barlow (8-0) began to figure out the timing and distance late in the second round before dropping Quinlan (6-2) early in the third with a strong left. Quinlan popped up and tried to avoid more damage, but Barlow put him down again with a right.
As Quinlan rose and stumbled away, his right eye swelling shut, referee Jason Herzog stepped in and stopped the fight at 1:18 of the third round.
Elliott earns debut victory
Oban Elliott, in his UFC debut, weathered a shaky first round to grind out a unanimous-decision victory over Val Woodburn.
The judges scored it 30-27, 30-27, 29-28 for the Welsh welterweight.
Elliott (10-2) landed a head kick on Woodburn early in the first round, only for Woodburn (7-2) to storm through it and stagger Elliott with several shots. Elliott recovered in time to get Woodburn’s back, a position he secured again in the next two rounds.
Maverick opens with a win
Unranked Miranda Maverick used improved striking to record a unanimous-decision victory over No. 15-ranked flyweight Andrea Lee in the opening bout.
Maverick (15-5) connected with overhand lefts in the opening round and used takedown in the second and third to her advantage, with the judges scoring it for her 30-27, 30-27, 29-28.
Lee (13-9) sunk in a triangle choke in the closing seconds of the fight before she ran out of time for her fourth consecutive loss.
