J.J. Aldrich started out somewhat slow but put her foot on the gas in the later rounds against Danielle Taylor.

And as Taylor (9-3 MMA, 2-2 UFC) struggled to get any offense going at all, Aldrich (6-2 MMA, 2-1 UFC) gradually took over the fight, winning a unanimous decision victory with scores of 29-28 across the board.

The women’s strawweight bout was part of the preliminary card of today’s UFC Fight Night 124 event at Scottrade Center in St. Louis. It streamed on UFC Fight Pass ahead of the rest of the card on FS1.

Aldrich may have needed some time to find her comfort zone in this fight, but when she got there it proved to be trouble for Taylor. After getting a late takedown in the opening round, Aldrich gradually began to increase and diversify her striking attack, landing with increasing frequency as the fight wore on.

Taylor, meanwhile, spent much of the fight backing up and avoiding strikes and far too little of it throwing any back. Even as her coaches implored her to produce more offense, it was Aldrich who was scoring with punches from the outside, using her reach advantage to batter Taylor with impunity.

By the time the judges had their say, all three scored it in favor of Aldrich, who looked to be the fresher fighter by far after three rounds.

The win makes it two in a row in the UFC for Aldrich, after losing her debut in December 2016. Taylor’s loss snaps a two-fight winning streak.

Up-to-the-minute UFC Fight Night 124 results include:

• J.J. Aldrich def. Danielle Taylor via unanimous decision (29-28, 29-28, 29-28)
• Mads Burnell def. Mike Santiago via unanimous decision (29-28, 29-28, 29-28)

For complete coverage of UFC Fight Night 124, check out the UFC Events section of the site.

(MMAjunkie’s John Morgan contributed to this report on site in St. Louis.)