The Ultimate Fighting Championship will set up shop in Kansas City, Missouri, with an excellent main draw on Saturday at the T-Mobile Center. Featherweights rightfully take center stage at UFC on ESPN 44, as former champion Max Holloway looks to start a new campaign for a fourth shot at divisional kingpin Alexander Volkanovski while also serving as the toughest test yet for top talent Arnold Allen—a man who has yet to lose in his nearly eight years on the UFC roster. The co-main event sees a fun stylistic clash between Edson Barboza and Billy Quarantillo, and even the two light heavyweight bouts are interesting: Dustin Jacoby and Azamat Murzakanov will sort things out near the bottom of the UFC’s rankings, while Tanner Boser makes a long-anticipated cut down to 205 pounds against Ion Cutelaba. Add in the high-stakes Pedro Munhoz-Chris Gutierrez bantamweight battle and an opener featuring the immortal Clay Guida, and this should be a good time.
Featherweights
#15 P4P | Max Holloway (23-7, 19-7 UFC) vs. #4 FW | Arnold Allen (19-1, 10-0 UFC)ODDS: Holloway (-175), Allen (+150)
Still somehow just 31 years old, Holloway has the case to still be ranked among the best fighters in the world while also clearly currently locked out of a featherweight title shot. He had an understandably rough start to his UFC career back in 2012, getting signed at 20 years old and just four fights into his pro career, but a 2014 win over Will Chope kicked off a 13-fight winning streak that saw Holloway go from top prospect to all-time great. By the time Holloway won the belt from Jose Aldo in 2017, he looked like the next step in the evolution of the sport, and at just 25 years old, he was thought to be set up to reign over the division for years to come. Holloway did put in some dominant performances during his time at the top, with a 2018 win over Brian Ortega serving as a particularly impressive blowout, but “Blessed” only wound up being 145-pound king for about two and a half years, at which point he ran into Alexander Volkanovski. The Aussie won the title from Holloway and then turned him back in an immediate rematch, both of which were close fights that the Hawaiian had an argument to win. Even so, Holloway had to earn his way back to a trilogy fight. The two were operating at such a higher level than everyone else that Holloway figured to get back to top contender status sooner rather than later, and that was indeed the case. First came a win over Calvin Kattar that remains one of the most impressively dominant performances in UFC history. Holloway laid an absolute battering on the Massachusetts native for five rounds, at one point even winning exchanges with Kattar while looking away and talking to the announcers. A subsequent victory over Yair Rodriguez saw Holloway rely more on brute force and surprisingly pivot to some wrestling, but that was enough to earn another crack at Volkanovski for what figured to be their best fight yet, as both men had evolved even more over the ensuing two years. Instead, Holloway essentially had the tables turned on him from the Kattar fight. Volkanovski never let him get into the fight and took him apart for five rounds, establishing himself as a fighter in his own tier. Holloway is still probably the second-best fighter in this division, and it looks like he will be forced to turn back potential challenger after potential challenger until he finally establishes himself as the best option left for Volkanovski. That figures to be a long road, and it starts here against Allen.
Another prospect who developed into a contender under the UFC’s watch—he was signed at just 21 years old in 2015—England’s Allen took a much slower path to prominence. Whether intentionally or not, the UFC eschewed its usual playbook of throwing a prospect into the deep end. Instead, Allen only fought about once per calendar year when the UFC swung by Europe, getting either lateral moves or small moves up in level of competition until the promotion finally got behind him in 2019. It has been a rocky path at times, even if “Almighty” is still undefeated under the UFC banner. He has tended to be a bit aimless or overly patient against certain opponents but has always proven able to gut out the victory, whether through single-shot power or sheer physical strength as a wrestler. After cycling through a few different approaches, it appears that Allen has settled in as a bouncy range striker with consistent power but inconsistent volume. The 2021 decision win over Sodiq Yusuff that served as Allen’s breakout into contender status saw him get outlanded but win rounds as the much harder hitter. He had no such issues in his subsequent win over Dan Hooker. Allen quickly hurt Hooker, then went into full berserker mode, throwing heat at a hellacious pace and ending the fight in about two and a half minutes. It is hard to know what to make of Allen’s last win over Kattar, which started off well enough but came to an early end after “The Boston Finisher” shredded his knee attempting some sort of ill-advised flying kick. Allen certainly has the physical tools to hang with Holloway, as he appears too strong to bully and capable of carrying power through at least three rounds. However, it is unclear if he has the temperament, as he figures to let Holloway lead and develop his offensive reads, in turn allowing him to build the type of momentum that has marked the former champion’s best performances. While Allen is often able to make his mark with fight-changing power, Holloway is among the most durable fighters the sport has ever seen; he has taken enough damage that his chin figures to go at some point, but it has not happened yet. Without a clear way to blow open this fight, Allen figures to be catching up for the better part of five rounds, but he should do enough to make this entertaining throughout. Much like Rodriguez, he looks to be an opponent who can stall Holloway out at times and force him to go through hell for a win, all while being unable to find the type of consistent success to get a victory himself. The pick is Holloway via decision.
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Holloway vs. Allen
Quarantillo vs. Barboza
Jacoby vs. Murzakanov
Cutelaba vs. Boser
Gutierrez vs. Munhoz
Garcia vs. Guida
The Prelims