Canadians Robertson, Croden in search of to face out at UFC Fight Night

It’s been a busy last few months of 2025 atop UFC’s three girls’s divisions.

In October, after Weili Zhang vacated her strawweight title, Mackenzie Dern defeated fellow longtime 115-pounds contender Virna Jandiroba to take over the belt. Then, in November, Zhang moved as much as flyweight, the place she was outmatched by Valentina Shevchenko in a conflict of the highest two pound-for-pound girls within the sport.

And right here, in December, Amanda Nunes — solely the best girls’s fighter of all time — introduced her return from retirement to problem two-time Olympic gold medallist Kayla Harrison for the bantamweight strap she claimed solely three fights into her UFC profession. It’s a matchup so significant that the corporate selected to make it a co-main occasion at UFC 324, its first card beneath a $7.7-billion media rights partnership with Paramount starting within the new yr.

That’s left the ranked girls in every division jockeying for place to be subsequent in line for title photographs as soon as all of the tremendous battle mud has settled. First, Fatima Kline reasserted herself as a prime 115-pounds prospect with a one-sided victory over Angela Hill at UFC 322. Then, Mayce Barber put it on Karine Silva final weekend at UFC 323 for her seventh straight win at flyweight.

Now, this Saturday, we’ll get two extra significant girls’s fights, every that includes a Canadian. Niagara Falls, Ont.’s Gillian Robertson is in search of to increase her four-fight win streak and battle her manner nearer to strawweight’s top-five towards Amanda Lemos, whereas Toronto’s Melissa Croden will try to interrupt into the bantamweight rankings with a fast turnaround towards No. 15 Luana Santos.

Here’s a more in-depth take a look at these two matchups on UFC’s last card of 2025.

Amanda Lemos vs. Gillian Robertson

Robertson has been on a two-year roll, successful every of her final 4 contests and tying Nunes for many finishes in girls’s UFC historical past along with her tenth profession stoppage two rounds right into a conflict with Marina Rodriguez in May. That TKO despatched Rodriguez into retirement and gave Robertson the largest identify on her resume.

It’s a run that may’ve been exhausting to foresee solely three years in the past, when Robertson was toiling with a 10-7 document as a UFC flyweight. But initially of 2023, she selected to drop right down to 115-pounds, the place she’s misplaced solely as soon as in six outings since — to No. 8-ranked Tabatha Ricci, who was capable of preserve their battle standing and out of Robertson’s most popular world on the mat.

That will at all times be the largest query for Robertson to reply as she advances up her division — whether or not she will hold in with strikers who efficiently defend her takedown makes an attempt. Because there’s zero doubt how important her benefit is when she will get opponents to the ground. 

Robertson nonetheless holds UFC girls’s flyweight information for submission wins, control-time share and top-position share, regardless of leaving the division three years in the past. And at strawweight, she trails solely Tatiana Suarez in management time share whereas holding a 10-point benefit on the latest title challenger in prime place share.

That might make a possible matchup with Dern — the strawweight champion is a third-degree jiu-jitsu black belt — an enchanting conflict of proficient grapplers. But a title shot is probably going nonetheless no less than two fights away for Robertson, who may have her palms full this weekend with Lemos. 

The No. 5 strawweight is a talented striker who can chew up opponents from vary. She earned a title shot in 2023 (Zhang routed her in a dominant five-round choice) and has hung across the division’s prime 5 ever since, combating identify model strawweights reminiscent of Dern, Jandiroba and Suarez.

Lemos has a transparent edge in expertise, however Robertson — someway nonetheless solely 30, regardless of combating 19 instances within the UFC since 2017 — is sort of a decade youthful. Entering the UFC at 22 has allowed Robertson to repeatedly spherical out her skillset over time, and whereas removed from her division’s heaviest hitters, she’s constructed out a stable defensive sport on the toes and has myriad methods to get opponents to the bottom.

A win Saturday might vault Robertson into strawweight’s prime 5, the place she’d doubtlessly be a win away from a title shot. One extra over a prime contender reminiscent of Suarez, Jandiroba or Yan Xiaonan must be sufficient to do it. That would make 2026 a massively vital yr for the always-active Robertson as she strives to trip her momentum all the way in which to Dern’s doorstep.

Melissa Croden vs. Luana Santos

The oldest of UFC’s three girls’s divisions has suffered stagnation because the finish of its heyday within the mid-2010s as one-time bantamweight icons Ronda Rousey, Holly Holm, Miesha Tate and Nunes all moved on from the promotion. It says one thing that there have been solely six fights, mixed, between UFC’s present prime eight ranked bantamweight girls in 2025 — two of them contested at catchweights resulting from misses on the scales.

It’s a division starved for brand new contenders and it’s potential this weekend’s conflict between the unranked Croden and No. 15 Luana Santos might be an early step towards one rising.

Santos entered the UFC as a flyweight however determined to maneuver up following a troublesome weight reduce in her last look at 125-pounds, a unanimous choice loss to Casey O’Neill. And she seemed proper at dwelling in her bantamweight debut, controlling veteran kickboxer Tainara Lisboa on the bottom for many of two rounds earlier than sinking an americana from mount.

Croden introduced her presence at bantamweight with a stoppage of Lisboa as nicely, but in a lot completely different trend as she dropped the Brazilian within the second spherical and secured a end shortly thereafter with relentless offence. It was her third straight TKO victory as Croden has used an aggressive, highly effective type to first stand out in LFA and now earn her strategy to the UFC.

The 34-year-old hasn’t wanted the judges’ scorecards in any of her dozen wins since debuting on the Western Canadian newbie circuit in 2016 and her lone loss within the final 5 years, to present No. 10 UFC bantamweight Jacqueline Cavalcanti in LFA, has aged nicely. Cavalcanti has received eight straight, her final 5 within the UFC.

Win once more by way of stoppage on Saturday, and Croden will transfer inside attain of her division’s higher echelon, which might quickly empty out. 

Harrison and Nunes seemingly aren’t lengthy for combating after they meet at UFC 324 in January. Nunes is 37 and popping out of retirement to battle for the primary time in practically three years. Harrison is 35 and might solely make the intense weight reduce to bantamweight — she fought at 155-pounds in PFL — so many instances. Along with former champions Julianna Pena (36) and Racquel Pennington (37) — ranked No. 1 and a pair of within the division, respectively — they’re closing in on exits from the game.

That might go away a substantial energy vacuum atop the division by 2027 and a wide-open competitors amongst 135ers to fill it. Norma Dumont, Ketlen Vieira, and Yana Santos are already near the highest. Macy Chiasson wants solely a win to re-enter the fray. Joselyne Edwards received twice in 2025; Ailin Perez is undefeated in her final 5; Karol Rosa was a type of 5 however has already bounced again with a win.

If the UFC can get some fights made between this group, there must be quite a lot of jockeying for place in 2026 as issues are sorted out on the prime. And one among Santos or Croden can get an early step on that race with a press release efficiency this weekend.