Mackenzie Dern Replaces Injured Tatiana Suarez, Meets Amanda Lemos at UFC 298

Mackenzie Dern will step in for Tatiana Suarez and square off against Amanda Lemos at UFC 298.

The Orange County Register was first to report the new strawweight booking. Suarez was forced to withdraw from the event due to an “unspecified injury,” according to the report. UFC 298 takes place on Feb. 17 at the Honda Center in Anaheim, California and is headlined by a featherweight championship clash pitting Alexander Volkanovski against Ilia Topuria.

Dern, 30, split a pair of appearances in 2023. After taking a unanimous verdict over Angela Hill in the UFC Fight Night 223 headliner on May 20, the Brazilian jiu-jitsu black belt suffered a second-round TKO defeat against Jessica Andrade in her last outing at UFC 295. Dern is 8-4 during her promotional tenure, with other notable wins over the likes of Tecia Torres, Nina Nunes and Virna Jandiroba.

Lemos, meanwhile, came up short in a championship bid at UFC 292 this past August, when she lost a unanimous decision to reigning strawweight queen Weili Zhang. Prior to that defeat, the 36-year-old Brazilian had been victorious in seven of her last eight Octagon appearances.

Suarez appeared primed to make a title run in 2024. She returned from a lengthy hiatus last year, earning back-to-back submission wins over Montana De La Rosa and Andrade to establish herself as a person of interest at 115 pounds.