Lee vs. Macedo

This is the official discussion thread for Lee vs. Macedo. Let's see what you've got.

Tale of the tape: Andrea is 29, 5’6, with a 69 or 69.5 inch reach. Veronica is 22, 5’4, with a 64 inch reach. Veronica made her ufc debut on short notice at UFC Fight Night 93 in September of 2016 against Ashlee Evans-Smith. She loss by tko via elbows in rd 3. She did pretty good in that fight, especially when you take into consideration she was only 20 year old, fighting on short notice, & had fought a month prior at another promotion. Since ufc fight night 93, she hasn’t fought since then… about 2 years but she’s still really young. She’ll be dropping down from bantamweight to flyweight to fight Andrea Lee who is making her ufc debut. Imo, both women are prospects to watch out for. Andrea probably now since she’s in her fighting prime. Veronica maybe in a few years from now. Who’s the superior striker? Answer: Since they’re both primarily strikers in mma… I would imagine Andrea getting the better of the exchanges against Veronica when they strike. Andrea has better boxing, better head movement BUT NOT footwork, faster hands, she has the height & reach advantage, and throws more combinations. Andrea is the more effective striker even though Veronica throws a lot of flashy kicks. Andrea utilize more weapons while Veronica’s main weapons are her kicks. Andrea is going to be the one walking forward with a kickboxing stance while Veronica has more of a taekwondo stance with constant footwork moving in and out & circling away. I believe Andrea will get the better of the striking exchanges. Here’s why: Summary of Veronica’s striking: southpaw stance, taekwondo background… was a 5x USA national champion, lots of kicks… especially head kicks, likes to throw spinning back kicks… in her ufc debut she landed a clean spinning back kick to ashlee evans-smith stomach & hurt her but ashlee had a good poker face & Veronica did not follow up with anything afterwards… she allowed Ashlee to recover. Veronica has a taekwondo stance in mma… doesn’t throw a lot of punches. Has a lot of footwork moving in and out & in circle. Her movement can be a bit predictable in that she hops up & down moving side to side. Her foot moves but her head doesn’t. Can have her hands a bit low at times in order to stop takedowns & has a bad habit of moving backwards & not moving her head off the center line when she throw her kicks… that’s a huge problem for her. She can be counter-punched to the face since after she throws a kick she has no defense… head is stationary, chin is high, & hands are low. She also likes to sprint towards her opponents throwing a flurry of punches and then use footwork to side step away… good footwork & can catch opponents off guard because opponents aren’t expecting her to move forward… most of the time she’s moving laterally or backwards. Bad thing about this is that she leaves her chin up in the air, no head movement, and she’s open for a level change as she has a very straight stance when she’s running forward throwing flurries of punches & if opponent are quick enough they can capitalize on her when she’s making her exit route to the side. She needs a lot of space to throw effective kicks. Ideal fight for veronica: an opponent that won’t wrestle or is not a superior grappler, opponent that’s flat-footed & does not check leg kicks or attempt to catch body/head kicks, not physically stronger or bigger in size than her, not a good boxer, & an opponent that does not know how to cut off angles or pressure forward causing veronica to back up. How to beat veronica in the striking department: it’s not that hard… her weaknesses are very similar to anthony pettis. Does not do well when backing up being trapped along the fence & if opponent can consistently threaten her with takedowns or clinch attempts. Opponents that are heavy in wrestling and/or superior in boxing with a longer reach. Opponent that’s good at counterpunching or catching kicks. Give Veronica little space to throw kicks and make her hesitant on throwing kicks fearing a takedown or catching her kicks. She’s fun to watch… it’s like watching a young female anthony pettis/lyoto machida. How effective are her kicks? Unless she lands a spinning kick, I don’t see her kicks as being really effective in terms of damage. She has a bad habit of just landing one kick and then move away… it kind of looks like she admires her work after she lands a kick. She needs to follow up her kicks with punches immediately. She gives her opponents too much time to recover by moving away after landing kicks. I think she could’ve stopped Ashlee evans-smith in rd 1 after she landed a powerful spinning back kick to the stomach. She didn’t go in for the kill & she didn’t immediately follow up with more offense. Also, she has a lot of footwork & constantly throwing kicks which takes more energy = drains her cardio faster. She did slow down by end of rd 2 against Ashlee in her ufc debut… but she took the fight on short notice & she was only 20 years old at the time. She’s still young as of 2018, 22 years old. Summary of Andrea’s striking: orthodox stance, heavy on left leg, kickboxing stance & style, likes to move forward and keep her opponents trapped along the fence, bad habit of loading up on her punches & kicks. She doesn’t really set up her shots… however, her punches/kicks carry a lot of power if it lands. Fast jab but isn’t too accurate. Her punches are very fluid & carry a lot of speed & power. She would have a higher accuracy in her striking if she made minor adjustments: consistently work on her jab, throw in combinations, & use feints because she telegraphs what she’ll throw from far away… not too good in judging distance & similar to Holly Holm she makes a “HUH!” sound whenever she throws a power shot. Previous opponents have been able to time her when she throw kicks or swing for a punch & miss… she’ll miss by a long shot because she loads up on her punches/kicks, doesn’t set them up, bad judgement in distance, & it’s one-and-done shot. As for defense in her striking… she has decent defense… for women’s mma. Very kickboxing base defense. Although she’s somewhat flat-footed and heavy on her left leg, she does have her hands high, has head movement, good hip movement bobbing & weaving, and she has her chin tucked except when she loads up on her punches… she can be counterpunched if opponent moves in angles & time her. Overall, in terms of striking for women’s mma, she’s pretty good because she has fast hands, bob & weave movement, her punches/kicks carry power, she’s aggressive & refuses to take a backstep or be trapped along the fence & she has variety in her strikes… kicks, punches, knees, step-in elbows, few spinning attacks & she attacks the head, body, and leg. She’s not perfect in her stand-up striking, but her strikes are effective & is superior (offensively) to a lot of flyweights in her division. Who’s the superior grappler? Answer: neither… no idea, hard to tell. Veronica is brown belt in jiu-jitsu (that was in 2016) while Andrea is a purple belt. Andrea has more wins in mma via submission. MMA Jiu-jitsu - neither. MMA wrestling - neither, hard to tell. Veronica has pretty good defense on the ground… yes, she was taken down in every round in her loss against Ashlee Evans-Smith. Andrea has 2 submission losses. 1 as a pro & 1 in her amateur career. Overall, no idea who would have the advantage in the grappling department. I don’t think there will be much grappling in this fight & if they do clinch it’ll probably be a stalemate. I would imagine Andrea would be the one to clinch with Veronica in order to close the distance, stop her from throwing kicks, and try to take her down since she does have the size advantage (height, reach, & probably physically stronger as well). If they clinch, Andrea would probably bully Veronica around as she’s been able to outpower majority of her opponents in the clinch with her size, aggression, fast pace, & muay thai plum.

Intended fodder, but Lee isn't as good as the hype machine wants us to believe so it'll be close.

Close fight. Macedo showed some flashes of brilliance against Smith but she spent a lot of that fight thinking and not pulling the trigger enough. The more experienced Lee should do enough over 3 rounds to get the nod.

Potential Fight of The Night

This fight may come down to game plans. Macedo fought 4 times in 5 months and went for 3 rolling kneebars in her last fight. Not a great sign. Lee will almost certainly finish this fight strong, but the first round may be where we see serious adversity from Macedo.

Commie filth is going to get Pinochet treatment