"Angela is going to finish her in the first round" – Bruno Pucci explains why his wife will beat Stamp Fairtex quickly at ONE X

If there’s one thing that Bruno Pucci loves about his wife Angela Lee’s fighting style, it’s the ONE atomweight queen’s mentality and natural fight IQ inside the circle.

Pucci, who previously competed in ONE Championship’s featherweight division, said in an interview with the promotion that his wife Angela is fully capable of retaining her world title and that Stamp Fairtex would be tapping out in the first round of the ONE X main event on March 26 at Singapore Indoor Stadium.

While Lee was out for more than two years due to her pregnancy with daughter Ava Marie, the Brazilian grappler said his wife wasn’t completely out of the loop and closely monitored ONE Championship’s landscape. He said:

“One thing about Angela is that she has a really high fighting IQ. She has been doing this since she was young. And even though she stopped for these two years, she was mentally engaged watching the events, and now she has come back, she just refined everything else."

The submission specialist was vehement in his wife's grappling that Stamp would be tapping out in the opener. He commented:

"I think she’s pretty much a complete athlete. I can tell you that everything looks super sharp. I believe Angela is going to finish in the first round, and my bet is on submission – but it can be standing up as well.”

'Unstoppable' Angela Lee is a top grappler in the atomweight class with seven submissions, while Pucci is a two-time Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu No Gi World Champion and regarded as one of the best submission artists in the men's featherweight division.

Lee had five straight submission wins when she entered ONE Championship and her last victory also came via tapout when she submitted ONE strawweight world champion Xiong Jingnan at ONE: Century in October 2019.

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Pucci sees no rust factor in Angela’s return

Despite his wife being out of competition since late 2019, Pucci doesn’t believe ring rust will play a factor in Angela’s world title defense against former two-sport champion Stamp.

The featherweight contender said his wife resorted to a ton of sparring sessions to make up for the time outside the circle and it’s that repetition that further honed the longtime atomweight champion’s resolve heading into ONE X.

Pucci said:

“I think ring rust can be real or not – it depends on how each fighter lets this affect their mindset. If you take it lightly, like, ‘I’ll just take two years, not a big deal,’ yes, it can be a problem.

The Brazilian grappling ace added that his wife has gone through a lot as a fighter and that almost nothing would surprise her.

He added:

“I think for Angela, what helped is a lot of sparring. Sometimes there is no way to take the nerves off aside from doing heavy sparring because the more you do it, the more you know you’re ready. She definitely did so many of those rounds that she’s ready. There’s nothing that can surprise her at this point.”