Preview: UFC 259 Prelims

Amanda Lemos put her to sleep almost instantly #UFCBusan pic.twitter.com/YOwosZQr27

— ESPN MMA (@espnmma) December 21, 2019

Women’s Strawweights

NR | Amanda Lemos (8-1-1, 2-1 UFC) vs. #15 | Livinha Souza (14-2, 3-1 UFC)

ODDS: Lemos (-225), Souza (+185)

When Souza made her UFC debut in 2018, hopes were high that she could make an impact in a deep strawweight division. Beyond her acumen inside the cage—her lone loss to that point had come against Angela Hill—"The Brazilian Gangster” showed the type of swagger and charisma that could make her a star with a bigger platform. While Souza has been successful in the UFC, winning three of her four Octagon bouts, it has still been a run tinged with disappointment. After a one-sided win over Alex Chambers in her UFC debut, Souza has found it difficult to consistently control her fights. Wins over Sarah Frota and Ashley Yoder were messy back-and-forth affairs, and Brianna Van Buren’s straight-ahead wrestling game handled Souza without much issue. Souza is a wild striker and a frantic submission artist, but for every impressive moment she has had against stronger competition, the feeling is that she gives those gains right back. A convincing win over her fellow countrywoman would do a lot of good, as Lemos has come out of nowhere as a potential threat at 115 pounds. Lemos had a slow start to her UFC career. She got overwhelmed by Leslie Smith in 2017, then was gone for over two years due to a failed drug test. It came as a surprise when Lemos made her return down two weight divisions, but the additional physicality has served her well, as she has been able to bully Miranda Granger and Mizuki Inoue. Lemos is a fairly neutralizing fighter, so the question becomes whether or not Souza can throw out enough activity—ineffective or not—to win rounds and outweigh her adversary’s slow-paced precision and control. Given Souza’s struggles with stronger fighters—her fight against Frota being as narrow as it was looms large—the pick is Lemos via decision.

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