We have an excellent and thrilling co-main event bout for UFC Fight Night on Saturday night inside of the UBS Arena in Elmont, New York as we have a women’s strawweight matchup between the 10th and 11th ranked fighters in the division. Michelle Waterson and Amanda Lemos are set to lock horns for the first time ever.
Michelle Waterson vs. Amanda Lemos
UFC Fight Recap
Michelle Waterson is coming off a unanimous decision loss back on UFC on ESPN 24 against Marina Rodriguez back on May 8, 2021, while Lemos is also coming off a loss in the main event of UFC Fight Night 205 where she was forced to submit to an arm-triangle choke in the first round against Jessica Andrade on April 23, 2022.
Waterson vs. Lemos Betting Analysis
Michelle Waterson Analysis
“The Karate Hottie” Michelle Waterson is 36 years old entering the octagon and has an 18-9 record in her professional career.
She is coming off a unanimous decision loss to Marina Rodriguez back on May 8 of last year, so she could come into this fight a little rusty.
However, it seems like she could have lost a step inside of the octagon as she is 1-3 in her previous four fights going into this clash with Lemos.
Women’s Strawweight Ranking
She is the 10th-ranked women’s strawweight when looking at the UFC rankings and a lot of that has to do with her submission-based offense.
Nine of her 18 career wins (50 percent) have come via submission, but her last submission victory was back in December of 2016 against Paige VanZant.
If this elongated time off can help her snap out of her funk, it will do wonders for her chance to climb the rankings even more.
Amanda Lemos Analysis
Amanda “Amandinha” Lemos has a lot of experience in her MMA career as she is 35 years old and has an 11-2-1 career record heading into this matchup.
She is coming off a first-round submission loss to Jessica Andrade back in April to snap a five-fight winning streak.
Women’s Strawweight Ranking
Lemos is considered to be the 11th-ranked women’s strawweight contender in the UFC rankings and can surge up with a win against Waterson here.
Lemos does fight with a lot of power in her offense as seven of her 11 career victories (64 percent) have come via a knockout.
She does not waste time as two of her previous three wins have come with a knockout and they combined for 4 minutes and 34 seconds of total fight throughout them.
She has the ability to make this fight end extremely quickly so it will be interesting to see how she approaches this bout.
UFC Injury Report
As of this writing, both Waterson and Lemos have not reported any injuries sustained by their respective training camp.
That means that this fight should have them both making weight and at 100 percent for this clash inside of the octagon.
Michelle Waterson vs Amanda Lemos Betting Preview
According to the odds provided on UFC’s official website, Waterson is listed as the underdog at +260 to walk out of the octagon victorious while Lemos is considered a pretty heavy favorite at -315 to win.
Michelle Waterson vs. Amanda Lemos Betting Prediction
With two experienced fighters that are both coming off a loss, it could be difficult to figure out which fighter should win.
However, here is pretty simple Amanda Lemos has been the better fighter. I worry with Waterson as she has not fought in 14 months and is taking on one of her toughest opponents right away.
Waterson Against Lemos Fighters Skills
As we talked about, Lemos is by far the more aggressive and powerful fighter as she is averaging just seven minutes per fight with her ability to end things quickly.
Looking at the significant strikes landed per minute, Waterson is averaging 3.57 in her UFC career while Lemos is at 5.14.
Even the percentage is heavily favoring Lemos as she has a 57 significant strike percentage compared to Waterson’s 48 percent. All in all, go with Amanda Lemos to pick up a knockout victory in this fight.
UFC Co-main Event Bout Pick
UFC fights are an entertaining way to bet on sports and you can do so with this one as well! All you need to do is decide which sportsbook you are going to use and go to it.
Who to Bet On?
Once you get to their website, go over to the UFC or MMA odds depending on the book, and look for either Michelle Waterson or Amanda Lemos’ name.
If you have trouble finding it, which you shouldn’t since it is the co-main event, you can also look for a search bar and type either fighter’s name to go straight to the betting slip.
UFC Pick: Lemos (-315)
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