Raise the stakes, and Arnold
Allen promises that he’ll only keep getting better.
The Englishman won his ninth consecutive bout in the
UFC Fight Night 204 co-main event, stopping former lightweight
contender Dan Hooker
via TKO at the 2:33 mark of Round 1 in their 145-pound clash at the
O2 Arena in London on Saturday. After a run of four straight
decision wins, Allen knew it was important to make a statement.
That he did, going toe-to-toe with one of the sport’s renowned
action fighters and winning a firefight in emphatic fashion.
“It’s huge. To be honest, I know I’m a finisher,” Allen said at the
post-fight press conference. “I know I’m a decision guy really, I’m
pretending now, but I’ve got the power in my hands. All my coaches
tell me I hit hard, I put people down with body shots in sparring.
It just doesn’t come out in the fight. I think the kind of style of
opponents I’ve fought haven’t allowed me to fight that way. I
nearly had it in the last fight (vs. Sodiq
Yusuff), but then I broke my baby hands and that didn’t
happen.
“I always said the better guys I fight, the better I’m going to
show up. He’s the best guy I’ve fought. He’s the most dangerous guy
by a country mile – physically, his skill set, he’s long as
anything.”
That said, Allen isn’t so sure that Hooker isn’t better off
returning to lightweight. “The Hangman” had mixed results early in
his UFC tenure at featherweight before moving to 155 pounds. He
returned to featherweight after losing three of four in the Octagon
to the likes of Islam
Makhachev, Michael
Chandler and Dustin
Poirier.
“I personally didn’t think it was the best choice,” Allen said of
the move. “If anything, someone like that, going up maybe again
would be a good idea, but he knows his body, he knows how he feels.
But yeah, I think his best work’s at lightweight. Not a knock at
him or anything obviously, but I don’t think making that extra cut
is a good choice.”
Allen isn’t quite ready for a title shot in a crowded division, so
he made the use of his microphone time – both in the cage and at
the press conference – to angle for a clash with Calvin Katter.
It’s a stylistic matchup that he believes favors him.
“I want to be in the top five and I think he’s top five,” Allen
said. “That’s a fight that would put me there. We got offered that
fight for a main event spot last year or earlier in the year, but I
was out with injury. I think it works really good. He’s less tall
than (Hooker), so that works out. He’s predominantly a boxer, I’m
predominantly a boxer, so it’s a fan-friendly fight. I think I’m
the better boxer.”
According to UFC president Dana White, Allen has earned the right
to call his shot.
“Who he just beat tonight and the way that he beat him …he got in
there and went right to war with Hooker,” White said. “Stood in the
pocket, didn’t back down and literally destroyed him. It’s
unbelievable. He’s ready for anything now. Tonight we found out
where that kid’s really at.”