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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