"More than just a Barbie doll" - Fighters and fans react as Mackenzie Dern sustains possible nose break in heavy-damage loss to Amanda Lemos

Strawweight contenders Mackenzie Dern and Amanda Lemos locked horns in the prelims of UFC 298. The event took place on Feb. 17 and was held at the Honda Center in Anaheim, California.

In her previous outing, Lemos went up against Zhang Weili with the UFC title at stake. The Brazilian came up short that night and suffered a unanimous decision loss. The three judges scored the bout 50-43, 50-44 and 49-45 in favor of Weili.

Dern, on the other hand, was last seen in action in November 2023 when she faced off against former champion Jessica Andrade at UFC 295. The fight ended in a second-round TKO victory for Andrade.

Lemos started the fight on an impressive note as she landed several heavy leg kicks on her opponent in the first round. In the next round, the 36-year-old scored a knockdown against Dern and gained top control on the ground.

Dern suffered a possible nose-break in the fight that went the three-round distance. In the end, Lemos was declared the winner via unanimous decision with a 29-28 score on all three scorecards.

The UFC 298 prelims fight drew reactions from several MMA fans on the internet.

One individual showered praise on Dern for her toughness in the strawweight encounter.

"Dern proving she's more than just a Barbie doll."

Derek Brunson took a jibe at Sean Strickland while praising the two strawweight athletes for the fight.

"Sean Strickland is [somewhere] punching the wall right now. This Dern/Lemos fight is a good one."

One MMA fan expressed displeasure at not a single judge scoring the fight in Dern's favor.

"Not even a split decision wtf??"

Journalist Luke Thomas shared that Lemos might have broken Dern's nose in the second round of the fight.

"Looks to me like Lemos smashed Dern's face and she winced in pain."

Check out a compilation of some of the reactions below:

MMA fans react to Amanda Lemos vs. Mackenzie Dern