Melissa Croden

Picked with the analyst citing her advantages specifically where the fight is likely to go -- the clinch and the grappling.

An effective striker who pushes the pace forward, using her jab to set up a crisp one-two combination. Her lead leg stays busy -- she kicks off it often without needing to switch stances, which keeps the path to the target as short as possible. Her clinch work is strong too, with tight positional control plus real snap on the knees and elbows in that phase, which she treats as distinct from her cage-push grappling. That grappling is a strength in its own right, especially against the fence, where she grinds well and mixes in effective dirty boxing, then finishes exchanges on the mat with genuinely heavy elbows once she gets a fight to the floor.