Calgary’s Melissa Croden loses UFC match to Brazilian Luana Santos

Melissa Croden prepares to fight against Tainara Lisboa during their women's bantamweight bout at a UFC Fight Night in Vancouver, B.C., Saturday, Oct. 18, 2025. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Ethan Cairns (ETHAN CAIRNS)

Calgary’s Melissa Croden lost her UFC fight Saturday night in Las Vegas to Brazil’s Luana Santos, but didn’t lose her mojo.

Santos, ranked 15th among 135-pound contenders, used her ground game to win a unanimous (29-28, 29-28, 30-27) decision over Croden.

The 25-year-old Santos, a black belt in judo, took Croden down with a trip in each of the three rounds, controlling the 34-year-old Calgary paramedic for much of the second and third rounds.

The Brazilian improved to 5-1-0 in the UFC.

Both fighters were coming off a win over the same opponent, Brazil’s Tainara (Thai Panther) Lisboa. Santos (10-2-0) won by second-round submission in May while Croden (7-3-0) recorded a third-round TKO in October to win her UFC debut.

Croden was philosophical about the defeat in a message she posted on social media.

“Eudaimonia is an ancient Greek concept that means living a good, meaningful, and fulfilling life,” Croden wrote. “Personally, MMA has not been something that I have chosen to do in the pursuit of happiness, it has been something that I do as an expression of the pursuit of the human experience, something that we have become really efficient at avoiding because it is really difficult to live…and loss is a big part of life."

“While losing a fight is not a comfortable experience the worth comes from the effort, consistency, integrity and character growth,” she added. “Loss is not a failure of life or identity it is just a part of living well as a fighter,” she added.

Croden then stated that she was uninjured and looks forward to her next UFC match.

“Thank you to my corner Curt, Hailey and Ken for everything that you do and thank you to my manager Brian Butler for landing me the opportunity to get to be a UFC fighter. What a beautiful life.

“Merry Christmas and Happy New Year! I’ll be back soon enough!”

Other Canadians

Canadian Lance Gibson Jr. also lost Saturday night, dropping a decision to American King Green.

Gibson’s father, Lance Sr., fought in UFC 24 and 29 in 2000, defeating Jermaine (Bam Bam) Andre and losing to Evan Tanner. The Gibsons join Randy and Ryan Couture and Gilbert and Elijah Smith as father-and-son duos to compete in the mixed martial arts promotion.

In earlier action, Squamish, B.C., flyweight Jamey-Lyn Horth stopped Czechia’s Tereza Bleda in the first round.

A fourth Canadian was scheduled for a high-profile bout Saturday but Gillian (The Savage) Robertson, ranked 10th among UFC strawweights, found herself without an opponent when Brazilian veteran Amada Lemos was withdrawn hours before the fight due to a medical issue, according to the UFC.

That fight has been postponed to March 14.

With files from The Canadian Press