Athletes
This Is The Opportunity Arnold Allen Has Been Waiting For
Surging Featherweight Arnold Allen Brings His 12-Fight Winning Streak Into The UFC Kansas City Main Event Opposite Of Max Holloway.
Arnold Allen learned a number of years ago not to focus on anything but the task in front of him.
“I got so ahead of myself,” begins Allen, speaking with John Gooden about his Cage Warriors fight with future Ultimate Fighter contestant Marcin Wrzosek in a sit-down interview you can find on this website. “Someone told me (UFC matchmaker) Sean Shelby was watching, and if I won, I’m getting signed. I was like, ‘Awesome! I’m effectively in the UFC now.’”
He pauses.
“Imagine just seeing him as a contract?” he says with an intonation that tells you how ridiculous that idea is to him now, all these years later.
Allen lost the fight by unanimous decision, and it remains the lone blemish on his otherwise sterling C.V. as he readies to face off with former featherweight champion Max Holloway on Saturday night at the T-Mobile Center in Kansas City, Missouri.
“That definitely reset that mindset,” he said Tuesday morning, reflecting on the contest and the conversation with Gooden. “I’ve never fought that way again — ‘When I beat this guy, we’re on to this.’ No — the task at hand is always full focus and 100 percent where I’m thinking.”
That approach has produced a dozen consecutive victories, the last 10 of which have come inside the UFC Octagon, and carried him to the brink of title contention in the 145-pound weight class. But along with helping him stay locked in and focused on the task at hand, worrying only about what’s right in front of him has also kept him from getting too bothered by how long it has taken for him to reach this point.
Allen is one of 15 individuals to earn 10 or more consecutive victories in the UFC.
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Other than current lightweight champion Islam Makhachev, who pushed his winning streak to 11 in claiming the title and edged it forward to 12 straight with a win over Alexander Volkanovski earlier this year, Allen is the only fighter from the modern era in the exclusive group that hasn’t been at least booked to fight for championship gold at some point during their active run of success.
“I’ve had full faith the whole way through to trust the process and at the end of the road is what matters,” explained Allen, who earned stoppage wins over Dan Hooker and Calvin Kattar last year and currently sits at No. 4 in the featherweight rankings, two spots behind Holloway. “When we get there, that’s where we want to be.
Arnold Allen Fight Week Interview | UFC Fight Night: Holloway vs Allen
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Arnold Allen Fight Week Interview | UFC Fight Night: Holloway vs Allen
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“There have been times where I’ve been sitting at home annoyed like, ‘I don’t know what’s going on with this one’ or ‘Have I missed this opportunity?’ — there have been those times — but overall, I’ve stayed positive.
“Hard work is the only thing I can do. As a fighter, that’s all you can control and that’s all I can do — work hard and keep your head down.”
Since his come-from-behind submission win over Alan Omer in his debut in the summer of 2015, Allen has kept his head down, his requests to a minimum, and his winning streak intact, taking on every tough assignment set before him with the same amount of focus and determination as the previous one, knowing that the only way he was going to get to the top of the division was by maintaining that approach.
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That being said, running his winning streak to double digits and getting the opportunity to headline a UFC Fight Night event for the first time last October opposite Kattar emboldened the awkwardly charismatic lad from Trimley St. Martin, prompting him to push for this weekend’s pairing with Holloway.
“It’s been a slow progression, like you said, but taking care of what you can in the meantime — improving, making adjustments, slowly getting better — is what it’s all about,” said Allen, when asked about seeking out Saturday’s matchup and being content with the opportunities afforded to him during the course of his eight-year UFC career. “And then it’s time to start asking for something that makes sense, and these are the sort of opportunities I’ve started asking for because I feel like I deserve them and I’ve earned them.
“I kept my mouth shut for a few years, and now I’m asking politely and getting the opportunity.”
And after eight years and 10 victories, it finally feels like this is the opportunity for Allen — a showdown with former champion Holloway, who only sits at No. 2 in the rankings because interim champ Yair Rodriguez — whom the Hawaiian defeated towards the end of 2021 — is positioned as the No. 1 contender.
While he’s come up short in his last three championship fights, Holloway has thrived in these situations — matchups against aspiring hopefuls looking to propel themselves to a championship opportunity by defeating him, only for “Blessed” to get the better of things.
He styled on Kattar on ABC and clearly got the better of Rodriguez later that same year, and now Allen wants to take his shot at toppling the divisional standout currently positioned as the formidable challenge standing between ascending featherweights and the opportunity to fight for UFC gold.
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“Everyone knows what Max has done,” he said of his dance partner this weekend. “He’s one of the best featherweights of all time, if not the best; he’s a Hall of Famer for sure. The records he’s done, the things he’s done — his resume he’s built speaks for itself — so I feel like getting a win over him, surely there’s nothing more to prove.
“I’m sure there will still be some people that ‘Yeah, but he hasn’t done this,’” he added, laughing. “Whatever — you get a win over Max Holloway, I feel you’re proven.”
Main Event Preview | UFC Fight Night: Holloway vs Allen
Unlock MORE of your inner combat sports fan with UFC Fight Pass! Fighting is what we live for. And no one brings you MORE live fights, new shows, and events across multiple combat sports from around the world. With a never-ending supply of fighting in every discipline, there’s always something new to watch. Leave it to the world’s authority in MMA to bring you the Ultimate 24/7 platform for MORE combat sports, UFC Fight Pass!
Main Event Preview | UFC Fight Night: Holloway vs Allen
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Allen knows the assignment before him this weekend is a considerable one — Holloway hasn’t lost a non-title fight since his August 2013 meeting with Conor McGregor in Boston, when he was 21 years old — but is excited to go out there on Saturday night and bring himself one step closer to reaching the end of his ongoing UFC odyssey.
View Allen's Athlete Profile Here
“We know what he does: he’s very high-paced, he’s going to try to walk you down, throw a lot of shots, and it’s my job to deal with that,” he said with a smile, assessing the matchup and forecasting how things will play out. “My belief is to just do me, do my thing. I’m not playing his game; he’s playing my game.
“It’s a fan-friendly fight — two exciting styles, both prefer to strike; I think it’s going to be good. It’s gonna be a nice, clean, fun performance.”
UFC Fight Night: Holloway vs Allen took place live from T-Mobile Center in Kansas City on April 15, 2023. See the Final Results, Official Scorecards and Who Won Bonuses - and relive the action on UFC Fight Pass!
