Tomorrow night in the featured prelim of UFC 298, we are going to see a big time matchup in the women’s strawweight division. Former title challenger Amanda Lemos (13-3-1) will look to get back on track as she takes on arguably the best jiu jitsu practitioner in the division in Mackenzie Dern (13-4).
Lemos was originally supposed to face off with Tatiana Suarez tomorrow night. However, Suarez suffered an injury setback in training and needed more time. Instead of pushing Lemos back, the UFC decided to move forward and Mackenzie Dern threw her name in to face Lemos.
Dern is coming off a tough loss in her last time out. In her first fight without her former boxing coach Jason Parillo and boy could you tell. The regression in her striking was shocking and she was knocked out by Jessica Andrade in the second round. Prior to that loss, she had looked sensational against Angela Hill in a win. However, we can’t ignore the last fight.
Amanda Lemos lost her UFC debut but won five straight to earn a fight with Jessica Andrade in 2022. Unfortunately she lost, but after back-to-back finishes over Michelle Waterson-Gomez and Marina Rodriguez, she found herself in a title fight with Zhang Weili. Unfortunately for Lemos, she was completely dominated in that fight. She’s hoping to bounce back strongly tomorrow night to build herself back up towards another future title shot.
UFC 298 Prediction
I really don’t like this fight at all for Mackenzie Dern and I’m honestly shocked she took the fight. Don’t get me wrong, I respect her toughness and willingness to get back in there, however, nothing about her last fight makes me confident she can win this fight tomorrow night.
It’ll all come down to whether or not she can take Lemos down. If Dern can land takedowns, she can win this fight. We know how dangerous her submissions are and honestly, it just takes one mistake from Lemos and Dern can take advantage. However, I’m worried for Dern on the feet.
Anything this featured prelim at UFC 298 is on the feet, Dern feels like a sitting duck. Lemos hits so damn hard and might even hit harder than Jessica Andrade. We saw what Andrade did to Dern and honestly, I think we are probably going to see a similar result but perhaps quicker.
Prediction: Amanda Lemos by TKO – Round 1