UFC Vegas 63: Arnold Allen took the slow route to becoming a UFC featherweight sensation
Arnold Allen made his UFC debut on June 20, 2015, in Berlin, Germany, when he submitted Alan Omer with a guillotine choke in the third round.
Fabricio Werdum was a week into his reign as UFC heavyweight champion. A little less than a month prior, Daniel Cormier became the promotion's light heavyweight champion.
Allen joined the UFC with a 9-1 mark and was optimistic he'd soon be among the promotion's featherweight elite. On Saturday, after seven years and four months in the promotion, Allen will appear in a main event when he faces veteran Calvin Kattar at Apex in Las Vegas.
Kattar joined the UFC 25 months after Allen, but Saturday's appearance at UFC Vegas 63 will be his fifth main event in a row.
It's been a long and arduous journey to the top for Allen, who is 9-0 in the UFC and is 18-1 overall heading into the Kattar fight. Allen, though, didn't let himself get upset over the slow path toward the top.
"It makes me feel like I'm where I'm supposed to be, in the main event and fighting a quality opponent who is in the top five," Allen told Yahoo Sports. "I've just always tried to keep a positive attitude in whatever I do. There were injuries, of course, but it was just me mainly realizing that if I did my job and performed to the level I was capable of, I'd eventually get to where I wanted to be. And it's finally coming all together, fighting a guy like Calvin, who is a tough, aggressive guy who has no quit in him."
Kattar has still got his eye on fighting for the featherweight title and believes that getting big opportunities is a sign of the UFC's trust in him.
He won a decision over Dan Ige in his main event debut in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates, on July 16, 2020. His last three have all been Fights of the Night, with losses to Max Holloway and Josh Emmett sandwiched around a win over Giga Chikadze.
Kattar remains convinced he won his bout with Emmett, though the official verdict was a split decision for Emmett. But he doesn't believe he lost much more in that fight than his win bonus, because so many believed he'd won and he remained in the division's top five.
"I feel like I won the fight but lost the decision," Kattar said. "It was tough at first, but I didn't really lose anything. And like I said, you win big or lose close with these judges sometimes.
"But I'm back in another main event. You always need a strong B-side to get big opportunities and to gain momentum from these main events. I'm just going to take it all in and I'll have an opportunity to change my life with another W on Saturday."
Allen said that while he was on the way up the rankings, the success other British fighters had, most notably former middleweight champion Michael Bisping, helped boost his confidence. He'd see it was possible for a fighter in his situation to make it to the top, and that provided plenty of motivation when things seemed to be going slower.
He's also a teammate of newly crowned middleweight champion Leon Edwards, who knocked out Kamaru Usman in the closing seconds of their fight at UFC 278 in Salt Lake City to win the belt.
"I was jumping up and down and going crazy," Allen said of his reaction to Edwards' victory. "But that was a reminder to all of us: Train hard and fight hard and good things can happen. Leon has a cool story. He's a pretty humble, low-key guy and to hang in there like he did and win the title like that, it was a huge boost for all of us."
Kattar clearly has more experience than Allen in big situations, but Allen just shrugged it off. His time has come and he's looking to prove he belongs at the top of the division.
"He has that experience, but when you're in those fights, you take a lot of damage and it all catches up to you," Allen said. "I haven't taken that kind of damage. I am going in in good shape and in full health, fresh as a daisy. So I'm very optimistic about my chances to perform."
