Melissa Croden eyes top 15 rankings spot at final UFC card of 2025

Melissa Croden battles Luana Santos on the December 13th UFC Fight Night in what is the promotion’s final card of 2025. With Santos in the number fifteen spot in the 135-pound division, ‘Scare’ Croden could find herself in the rankings hierarchy heading into 2026. When getting her thoughts on what that would mean to her at this juncture, Croden said [via MMA Canada],

“Yeah. I mean, again, it’s another; it’s a new thing to think about. It’s a new thing to consider and new goals to be had, right? Like I think it would be, as far as I understand, like if I am successful against Luana [Santos] then I would potentially be within the top 15 after my second fight in the UFC.”

“Which is, you know, I feel like is a fast track to that top 10, like who knows? If things go well, like I could be in the top 10 pretty quickl yif I keep finding these successful moments. So, I’m ready for the ride. You know, if God wills it and that’s what I’m meant to do, then I’m ready for it.”

Melissa Croden looks forward to the challenges Luana Santos will present at UFC Vegas 112

When assessing the skill set and general resume of her next opponent Santos, someone else who has a win over Tainara Lisboa. With Santos having been in the UFC for a little bit now, with some prior LFA experience, when offering up her thoughts on the resume and general skill set from Santos heading into this fight, Croden stated [via MMA Canada],

“She’s wellrounded. Yeah, I respect her immensely as a fellow martial artist. I know that she specializes in Judo. So that’s what everybody is going to be [working on] if you were to prepare against her. Like everyone’s going to be focusing on the defense on those throws and whatnot and wall work and that sort of stuff.”

“So when people are specialists that way, you kind of have to flip your mind instead of being afraid of ‘oh what are they so good’ at rather than ‘okay they spent so much time getting good at one thing which means they haven’t spent a lot of time in other aspects of the fight game,’ so. But regardless she’s wellrounded.”

“She knows what she’s doing in there. She’s been doing really well in her fights. She is coming up from 125, like having most of her fights at 125, I believe. So I think again I’m going to have the size advantage, but you know, that doesn’t always mean everything, right? Like I’m well aware of my strengths and weaknesses against this particular person. So I’m really excited about the challenge. Like I’m glad that she’s good because if I do well, it means just that much more, you know?”