Mai and Ty Lee win. Honestly, Mai's audacity, sheer defiance, and lack of fear of Azula already gives her major advantages over the princess. Mai also has experience fighting firebenders and is definitely more than familiar with Azula's style of fighting. There's also the fact that, as the show stressed, Mai grew up observing Azula's fighting style and actually knew her style very well. Azula, on the other hand, does not know Mai as well as vice versa, and this familiarity and immunity to Azula's major weapons makes Mai more than a plausible distraction and hindrance to Azula. While Azula has trouble with Mai, Ty Lee steps in and, as soon as she gets close, Azula's mush. Seriously, Ty Lee only took two hits to render the princess defenseless. I don't care what anyone says about Azula's agility, but she is NOT on par with Ty Lee in pure hand to hand combat and agility. For anyone in doubt, watch the flashback in "Zuko Alone" and how easily Ty Lee outdoes Azula in pure acrobatics. Seriously, one hit from Azula, if it even connects, may slightly throw Ty Lee off, but one hit from Ty Lee will severely paralyze and damage Azula's fighting ability, be it bending or not. Mai may not be able to beat Azula alone, but she sure as hell can keep her at bay and Ty Lee is more than agile enough to dodge anything that Azula throws at her, get in close, and utterly own her in hand to hand combat. Azula will be occupied with dodging Mai's knives and trying to unhinge her by failing, while Ty Lee will easily outdo Azula in acrobatics like she always does, get in close, and neutralize her ability as a fighter at all.
"The Boiling Rock" alone proved that Mai was alone enough of a distraction to keep Azula at bay while Ty Lee easily subdued Azula. The fight literally already happened with a swift victory for the team. It took a huge amount of guards to finally subdue the two. Azula is quite a bit behind Ty Lee in pure hand to hand, as well as acrobatics. And Mai alone will give Azula a hell of a fight on her hands.
@lunacyde: I agree 100%. Except one thing: blue fire IS stronger. However, Azula will already have to dodge Mai's darts, as well as shooting fire at her. Azula may be agile and a good hand to hand combatant, but against Ty Lee... forget it. So, I agree that Mai stalls Azula while Ty Lee gets in close. Seriously, they just have to repeat what they did in "The Boiling Rock". Azula got her ass handed to her by Ty Lee when Mai was busy stalling her.
@zhurong: Yup, I agree. Mai alone can give her a damn good fight, especially since she is experienced in holding off firebenders and Azula's scare tactics don't work on her. Much like Katara, Mai is one of the few to be unintimidated by Azula and have a cool demeanor while fighting her, which ruins Azula's chances to fight dirty. Once Mai has Azula at bay, Ty Lee subdues the princess with ease.
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