Max Holloway, Arnold Allen set to headline April UFC event
Max Holloway has a fight booked. The former UFC champion will fight Arnold Allen in the UFC Fight Night 222 main event on April 15, according to ESPN’s Brett Okamoto.
When it comes to booking an entertaining main event, it does get much better than this. Holloway and Allen are two of the best strikers in the featherweight division. A five-round contest between the pair screams fireworks.
This will be Holloway’s first fight back since his third matchup with Alexander Volkanovski at UFC 276. The trilogy did not end well for Holloway as he was unable to get a win over Volkanovski. Despite that, his wins over Yair Rodriguez and Calvin Kattar proved that he is still one of the best featherweights on the planet.
Meanwhile, Allen has been rising through the ranks of the UFC since joining the promotion. In ten fights, he has gone a perfect 10-0 with four finishes. This streak included ranked wins against Kattar, Dan Hooker, and Sodiq Yusuf. Ultimately, these victories pushed him to the top of the featherweight division.
This fight will be paramount to each fighter’s future. Even though Holloway is viewed as an elite fighter, he is 3-4 in his last seven. Despite those losses coming to Volkanovski and Poirier, another defeat could really push him in the wrong direction.
A win for Allen would trust him deeply into title conversations. The featherweight title is currently backed up as Volkanovski, the current champion, is booked to fight lightweight champion Islam Makhachev at UFC 283. At the same time, an interim fight between Rodriguez and Josh Emmett will feature as the card’s co-main event. Although, if Allen is able to beat Holloway, he will certainly be looking at a title fight. It would just be a matter of when — not if.
At least for now, this fight announcement answers some questions surrounding Holloway’s post-Volkanovski UFC career. More specifically, it looks like he will remain at featherweight rather than move up to lightweight, which was being discussed.
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