Women’s Strawweights
Cory McKenna (6-2, 1-1 UFC) vs. Miranda Granger (7-2, 1-2 UFC)This is a well-matched fight that should help sort things out between strawweight prospects. McKenna is an interesting talent who has some appeal as a natural underdog, as the baby-faced Welshwoman looks unassuming and has one of the smaller frames in the division, but she makes up for it by being an absolute scrapper. Signed by the UFC shortly after her 21st birthday, McKenna seemed to gain some momentum after narrowly winning her UFC debut against fellow young prospect Kay Hansen, but the ball has not really gotten rolling since. McKenna was out of action for all of 2021, eventually returning on a March card out of London and losing a frustrating fight against Elise Reed. McKenna had her moments and easily could have gotten the decision, but she had trouble tracking Reed down at times in order to assert her wrestling and grappling. She will look to rebound against Granger, who makes her own return after nearly two years on the shelf. Despite her long frame, “Danger” came to the UFC as a bullying pressure and clinch stylist with a knack for working towards submissions. That all went well enough until Granger had the misfortune of welcoming Amanda Lemos to the strawweight division in 2019. It was unclear at the time exactly what a powerhouse Lemos would become at 115 pounds, but she overpowered and choked out Granger with little effort to put the division on notice. Next came a messy bout against Ashley Yoder. Granger seemed more content to work from range, but Yoder consistently forced wrestling and grappling exchanges that turned into an inconsistent win for her counterpart. It will be interesting to see how that works in this assignment. It is unclear if Granger is all that comfortable trying to dictate range. With that said, McKenna did have some trouble closing in on Reed, and Granger does have a massive 10-inch reach advantage here. McKenna will likely find some wrestling success, but it is unclear if she can do enough with that consistently against Granger—a solid grappler—to offset any issues on the feet. It may be a bit of a flier—McKenna could just turn out to be more powerful and able to grind out a win—but the pick is for Granger to win a messy decision.
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Oleksiejczuk vs. Alvey
McKinney vs. Gonzalez
Battle vs. Sato
Quinlan vs. Witt
McKenna vs. Granger
Silva vs. Egger