Mackenzie Dern vs. Yan Xiaonan results: Which UFC judge scored the UFC Vegas 61 headliner a draw?

Mackenzie Dern and Yan Xiaonan had a close contest at UFC Vegas 61 on Saturday. It was the Chinese fighter who narrowly won on the judges' scorecards. The bout was so even that one judge, Mike Bell, scored the bout as a draw.

Both Junichiro Kamijo and Sal D'Amato favored Xiaonan to win, with a 48-47 score in favor of the Chinese fighter. However, Bell awarded the dominant final round performance by Dern with a 10-8 score for the 29-year-old.

See the official UFC scorecard here:

All of the judges agreed that Mackenzie Dern won rounds two and five, but only Mike Bell awarded the fighter a 10-8 round. Looking at the stats, Dern managed to outstrike Yan Xiaonan across the five rounds. The 29-year-old landed 224 total strikes, with Xiaonan only landing 151. However, the Chinese fighter did well when stopping Dern's takedown attempts, with the American only converting 2 of her 11 attempts.

Mackenzie Dern had a significant amount of control time, clocking up nine minutes and 19 seconds on the ground. Despite attempting zero takedowns, Xiaonan controlled Dern on the ground for four minutes and 11 seconds (All stats via UFCstats.com).

Watch highlights of the UFC Apex bout here:

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Was this the first majority decision loss for Mackenzie Dern in professional MMA?

Mackenzie Dern is not an unbeaten fighter, but had never lost a majority decision before facing Xiaonan Yan on Saturday. The Arizona-born fighter has lost three times in her professional MMA career, with all of the defeats coming via decision.

Her first defeat came against Amanda Ribas at UFC on ESPN+ 19: Joanna vs. Waterson. Dern lost via unanimous decision after three rounds of fighting. The Brazilian-American's second loss was against Marina Rodriguez and again came via unanimous decision.

Prior to her recent loss, Dern had defeated Tecia Torres via split decision at UFC 273 this April. The former ADCC world champion is now 1-2 in her last three fights. She will have to bounce back and make a statement to enter title contention. As matters stand, Dern is far from challenging for the women's strawweight title.