Arnold Allen: Slippery Canvas a Problem for Fighters at UFC on ABC 2

“Almighty” slipped right after landing that flashy head kick.

Arnold Allen (17-1, 8-0 UFC) shined in his latest Octagon appearance as he overcame Sodiq Yusuff (11-2, 4-1 UFC) in the co-main event of UFC on ABC 2. The Englishman put his crisper striking at work in the first and the second frame, failing short of stopping his opponent inside the distance after stunning “Super” with a clean head kick midway through the second stanza. Unluckily for him, “Almighty” couldn’t capitalize as he lost his balance and went down on the canvas immediately after.

“I think if I didn't fall over, maybe I would have finished him,” he said while talking with Sherdog. “All the power came off because I fell over him. I slipped a couple of times because the canvas was pretty slippery. I spoke to some people who fought earlier on the card as well, and they said the same thing, it was very slippery. They were slipping when they were trying to wrestle at the fence or kicking, they were slipping over.”

Ultimately, the 145-pound contender took a unanimous decision from Yusuff as he swept up 29-28, 29-28, and 29-28 scorecards from the judges. He then confessed that he would watch closely the Chan Sung Jung-Dan Ige fight that will go down at UFC Fight Night 190 as he plans to call out the winner of that clash.

“Before the fight was announced, I was thinking, ‘I’d like to call out Korean Zombie,’” he added. “He’s ranked at No. 5 or No. 6, I think. I was thinking that is an ideal matchup to push me forward after this fight. Then, he got booked with Dan Ige. But yeah, that would be a cool matchup, for sure.”

When asked, “Almighty” said that Ige would edge his opponent. He also talked about his ‘pretty rough’ camp in preparation for the fight, his current 8-fight winning streak, his plans now that he’s back in the UK and much more.

Tudor Leonte started writing about mixed martial arts in 2013 for Italian media outlets. His journey with Sherdog begun in 2018 and now he covers One Championship and countless European shows. You can follow him on Twitter @Tudor_leo.