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2022 In Review | Arnold Allen

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Arnold Allen came into 2022 on an eight fight win streak with a big point to prove. After taking out another rising contender in Sodiq Yusuff with a great performance in 2021, this was always going to be a big year for Allen as he looked to add some big names to his resume. 

In March at the O2 Arena, Arnie got the opportunity to do that. Whilst it wasn’t the high-ranked featherweight that many expected him to be facing, Dan ‘Hangman’ Hooker is a big name moving back down to the 145 pound division. Most importantly, he’s a name that all the fans know and tune into watch thanks to some of the wars that he has been a part of inside the octagon.

On a special night for UK MMA, Arnold Allen produced one of the star performances that night in London, blasting through his opponent in just over two and a half minutes. In his post-fight interviews, he explained how a shot from Hooker had blurred his vision early on so he decided to let his hands go and when he kept landing, he kept throwing. Producing a street fighter-esque barrage of shots to get the stoppage, Allen had pulled off a huge finish over a very well respected opponent. 

One of the names that immediately started floating around as a potential opponent was Calvin Kattar. The New England Cartel fighter opened his year with a phenomenal performance against Giga Chikadze and followed it up by losing a close decision to Josh Emmett. 

Their fight was set to main event the fight night card on October 29th in Las Vegas. Crucially for Arnold Allen, it meant staying active after he had only fought more than once per year just one time in the UFC since signing in 2015. Unfortunately, the fight came to a disappointing conclusion. After a strong first round from Allen, Kattar seemed to injure his knee right at the end of the round.

Once he came out for the second round, it was clear that it was still bothering Kattar and the fight ended just 8 seconds into round two, ruled as a TKO for Arnold Allen due to the injury. Whilst he looked great whilst the fight lasted, no one wants to win a fight that way and it robbed Arnold of his chance to finally beat a fellow top featherweight contender to climb right to the top of the rankings. 

Whilst his second fight of the year may have stalled his progress somewhat, 2022 has still been a big year for Arnold Allen. He’s tied with the champion Alexander Volkanovski for the longest win streak in the featherweight division and will undoubtedly have a huge fight on his hands next time around. 

After Josh Emmett vs Yair Rodriguez was announced for UFC 284 where the interim title will be on the line, there’s only two names above Arnold in the rankings that make sense. With the UFC coming back to London with a PPV card (UFC 286), Max Holloway or Brian Ortega are the big names that Arnold Allen has been chasing down.

On top of his work inside the cage, Arnie has been regularly posting content on his YouTube channel which currently has 22.2k subscribers. After his performance at UFC London and fans getting to see more of his personality, it finally feels like the masses have started to take notice of Arnold Allen as he prepares for what will be the biggest fight of his career to date.