EDMONTON — Chelsea Chandler survived a brutal early onslaught to submit Melissa Croden at UFC Edmonton on Saturday night, securing victory via first-round kimura at 4:52. The official result, Chelsea Chandler def. Melissa Croden via R1 SUB (Kimura) at 4:52, gave Chandler her second consecutive submission victory after weathering serious trouble.
Croden came out on the front foot and immediately put Chandler under pressure. She closed the distance behind a crisp one-two to the face after Chandler's jab failed to keep the Canadian at range. Chandler answered with a right hook and drove Croden to the fence, looking for knees to the body and a takedown, but Croden reversed position and landed solid shots in close before stunning Chandler with a clean strike on the separation.
Croden swarmed with heavy punches to the head as Chandler somehow stayed upright and fired back. The Canadian refused to give her space, landed more strikes and tossed Chandler to the canvas, landing on top. Chandler worked from her guard to limit damage and threw up a hail mary armbar that Croden muscled out of before forcing her back to her feet, where Croden landed another clean one-two. Both women embraced the war on the feet before the fight returned to the mat.
There Chandler immediately attacked the kimura. After an initial scramble she went right back to the submission, locked it up tight and forced Croden to tap. Following the finish, the doctor entered the cage to check on Croden, who appeared to have suffered an injury during the submission.