Athletes
Melissa Croden | Seeking A Win After Having Already Won
Canadian Newcomer Talks Debut At UFC Fight Night: de Ridder vs Allen And Leading With Gratitude
When Melissa Croden makes the walk on Saturday evening in Vancouver to face Tainara Lisboa in the opening bout of this weekend’s UFC Fight Night event at Rogers Arena, it will have been 51 weeks since she last stepped into the cage to compete.
“The last year has been a lot of self-motivation, discipline, support system— my friends and family supporting me on those days when I have doubts,” Croden said. “My coaches always believe in me, and my manager too. Brian Butler would call me up every once in a while and remind me to ‘stay patient; your time is coming.’
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“I’ve basically been in camp for the last year since my last fight. If you ask my coaches here at home, they have to force me to take rest days, which has often been a struggle of mine. The training never stops.
“I remember hearing Michael Bisping talk on a podcast one time, and he was like, ‘Fight camp — what is that? Those didn’t exist when I was coming up. You were always ready and always training,’” continued the newcomer. “I remember hearing that all those years ago and bringing that mentality into the last year: fight camp doesn’t exist — you just have to stay hard and keep going; find that motivation and discipline from within.
“It's been a lot of patience, a lot of work.”
While this past year has been a lot of patience and time spent in the gym getting better, the journey to reach this point has been a dozen years in the making for the resident of Crowsnest Pass, Alberta, who carries a 6-2 record into her debut.
UFC Vancouver: Full Fight Breakdown
Croden took her first official amateur fight in September 2017 and racked up five wins, all by stoppage, on the apprentice circuit before making her pro debut against Jo Maisonneuve in September 2019 and winning by stoppage in the third round. Having fought tough competition throughout her pro career, she has been waiting for this moment for some time, which is why she expressed such relief and gratitude on Instagram once her signing and debut date were officially announced.
“It was definitely an unforgettable moment in my life,” she said. “I think, often times, when you see fighters in the cage after a win and you see them breakdown in emotion and crying for all the world to see, it’s not just that you’re seeing that particular win — you’re seeing everything that they have had to go through to get to that moment. I think I was experiencing a bit of that at the time I got the news, so being able to feel all those things at one time was a pretty beautiful moment.
“It's something I’ve been waiting for for a very long time, but I think that God always has a plan,” she added. “Maybe I thought I was ready two years ago, but truly I think now is the time, now is my moment, and I’m really looking forward to it.”
A big part of the excitement stems from not only competing in Canada, but relatively close to home as well.
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“It’s a great feeling — it’s amazing — and it feels good to be fighting close to home because all my friends and family are coming,” offered Croden, unable to contain her smile when asked about fighting in Vancouver. “I usually function better with those people watching because it means — it ups the stakes a bit because nobody wants to be embarrassed in front of their friends and family.
“Like my mom is gonna be there, so sometimes I worry about how she’s gonna feel — she always says, ‘My nerves’ and is clutching her pearls at my fights and whatnot,” she continued, laughing. “But everyone is so supportive, so I’m lucky to represent my country, and my province, and do the thing that I love to do, do the thing that I do every single day on Canadian soil. It’s super-exciting.
“I would say it’s pretty perfect.”
Perfect is also how you could describe her finishing rate heading into Saturday’s bout with Lisboa.
Through her six wins, Croden has yet to see the scorecards, having earned stoppages in each of the first, second, and third rounds, including her victories over Katharina Lehner and Ashley Dean last year under the LFA banner.
MORE VANCOUVER: Fight By Fight Preview
“I think being raised as a fighter, I was always told, ‘If you go to a decision, you both lose,’” said the bantamweight, whose two setbacks have come by decision. “Nobody wants it to go to the judges, but I think early on, even before I had my amateur career, it was instilled in my mind that ‘You have to finish these fights. You have to finish. You have to be aggressive where it’s appropriate. Be patient until the time is there, until you know you have that finish and you can feel the ref beside you.’
“Usually that’s a pretty good sign of when to go and slam your foot on the gas,” she added with a smirk. “But in the UFC, the level of talent is gonna be higher, so the likelihood of getting a finish is gonna start to decrease. I’m just trying to not tunnel vision into myself of maintaining a 100-percent finishing rate or whatever. That’s the goal, of course, but my plan is to go in there and fight.
“I know how to fight, I’m good at it, I’m confident, I’ve done everything that I need to do r to prepare for this opponent.”
Lisboa is making her second appearance of the year and fourth tip into the Octagon this weekend, having earned victories in each of her first two outings before suffering a submission loss to Luana Santos when she ended a 19-month hiatus in May.
While she’s has slightly more experience overall than Croden and has felt the UFC canvas under her feet a few times already, the Albertan is confident that she has the tools need to make her first foray in the Octagon a successful one this weekend.
UFC VANCOUVER: View The Fight Card | Buy Tickets | VIP Experiences
“I know she has a striking background, Muay Thai striking, specifically, and she was really successful with that before she went into MMA; her grappling looks well-rounded too,” she said of her Brazilian foe. “I think I’m gonna have more tools on the feet — I think I have a little bit more dynamic footwork — so we’ll see how that works out.”
The combination of the “wait and see” attitude and “any positive result will do” ethos expressed earlier are clear signs of a newcomer trying not to get themselves too locked into a specific outcome when they finally make that walk, which is a sound approach that works no matter how many times you’ve fought on the big stage.
But like anyone that plies their trade inside a cage, stepping into the Octagon has been her dream from the outset and standing triumphant before the partisan crowd in Vancouver on Saturday night is a moment she’s been envisioning since the day she signed her contract.
So how does she think she’ll react if that’s how things shake out this weekend?
“Oh my gosh — I don’t even know. I’ll probably cry,” she said, still taken aback by the thought of it happening. “I don’t cry often, but I’ll probably cry. It’s just living the dream, right? Every fighters goal is to get into the UFC and this goal has been on my mind for a long time, and to finally…”
She paused.
“Whatever the result is, I already feel like I’ve won because the experiences I’ve been given through fighting, not a lot of people get to experience, and I have a lot of gratitude for what I get to do every day. I get to move my body, I’m healthy, I get to be an athlete, I get to express myself through my sport, and there is something that is really beautiful about that.”
UFC Fight Night: De Ridder vs Allen took place live from Rogers Arena in Vancouver, Canada on October 18, 2025. See the final Prelim & Main Card Results, Official Scorecards and Who Won Bonuses - and relive the action on UFC FIGHT PASS!
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