It’s Kline’s third trip to the Octagon, and while the strawweight from New York hasn’t crashed the 115-pound top 15, a win this weekend will move her closer to the rankings, a place most feel is a done deal for “The Archangel.” She refuses to look past her opponent, though.
“I really didn’t know who I was going to get, but honestly, I’m happy with it,” she said. “We’re both 1-1 in the UFC, and I feel like we are pretty evenly matched. I guess as far as record, she’s eight and one. I’m seven and one, and I feel like this is a good fight for me to get my feet wet in the UFC again in front of another crowd to really show everything I’ve been working on and just really make another statement with a dominant win over Melissa. I feel like I really belong in top 15. And so with all that in mind, yeah, I’d like to be in top 15 by the end of this year.”
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Kline is well on her way, but she’s not the type to tell the world about it. Like Blanchfield, that’s not how they’re built on the east coast. But put her in the Octagon, and you can see the switch being flipped. It’s why she took a short notice fight up a weight class and at altitude against surging Canadian contender Jasmine Jasudavicius. Kline didn’t get the win, but she made an impression, and sent a message.
“I do love taking these tough fights, and as much as I wish I would’ve won that, I took it and I feel like I toughed it out and I tried my best and did what I was able to do with the time that I had and the circumstances that were around me,” she said. “And that does give me so much confidence knowing that if I could do that and I could have a tough fight like that, and she’s now top five-ranked at ‘25, where does that put me? And every fight’s different, but I feel like when you have those tough fights early in your career and just go through the mud a little bit, I feel like it is going to prepare me for the future. And I feel like that fight, and even fights previous that were really tough for me, have been preparing me for each and every fight, especially now.”
