With UFC featherweight champion Alexander Volkanovski booked to face light-weight champion Islam Makhachev at UFC 284, the promotion made the smart determination to e book an interim featherweight title battle. With three fighters within the working for that battle, there was sure to be one dissatisfied 145-pounder. That fighter is Arnold Allen.
The fighters the UFC tapped to compete for the interim crown are Yair Rodriguez and Josh Emmett. Rodriguez is the No. 2 fighter within the official UFC featherweight rankings. Emmett checks in at No. 5, whereas Allen is ranked at No. 4. Rodriguez and Emmett will face off on the pay-per-view portion of the UFC 284 battle card.
Allen, who’s 19-1 in his profession and 10-0 within the UFC, is coming off an October 29 TKO win over Calvin Kattar. A knee harm suffered by Kattar introduced that battle to an in depth eight seconds into the second spherical.
The 28-year-old Allen was a bit shocked by the UFC’s determination to bypass him for the interim title battle. Nonetheless, he seems to be on the vivid facet of not preventing in Australia.
“I used to be somewhat bit stunned,” Allen instructed AbzTalks. “ I believed I used to be in simply with the win streak by itself. I do know the final battle wasn’t ultimate, however I believed if you put the nine-fight successful streak with out the final one, that was greater than worthy than both of what these guys have accomplished on the minute.”
“Preventing in Australia was removed from ultimate. It’s a great distance away. You’d need to fly a camp on the market and all that, clearly for a world title, you make it occur,” Allen added.
With Rodriguez and Emmett occupied, Allen feels a battle towards former UFC featherweight champion and present No. 1 ranked Max Holloway makes essentially the most sense.
“Lots of people are saying Max is the battle to make,” Allen stated. “That might be a enjoyable one. I don’t see why not. And likewise, I believe a win over him could be a much bigger assertion, and then you definitely throw your interim within the bin, proper?”
