The co-main event for UFC London was a big one for both participants. Arnold Allen came into the fight looking for his mainstream breakthrough and was able to find it by getting a huge finish in round 1. He showed a lot of really good things in his performance and I'll outline those in a moment. Dan Hooker was making his return to featherweight for the first time in a few years after having an up and down experience at lightweight over his last 6 or so fights. Some were concerned that Hooker would be depleting himself too much by cutting the extra weight, but I think as it played out, we saw that wasn't the case. Hooker made weight without issue and didn't look horrible on the scale. His chin actually held up despite being finished in the first round as he took a ton of punishment without ever going down. I think this was just more of a case of Dan Hooker fighting another extremely high level fighter and it has become clear that he just needs a step back. I'll get more into that in his section, but let's start with Allen.
Arnold Allen looked really good on Saturday and he showed some growth in areas that I think are going to be really important for him as he gets closer to the title shot. My main concerns about Allen, in terms of being a potential champion, are his power and his volume. When a fighter can strike with incredible power like Francis Ngannou, then they can afford to be more methodical in their striking because one isolated shot can end the fight immediately. Arnold Allen doesn't have the type of power where he can just flatten his opponent on the spot. That's why his lack of volume striking concerned me, but he showed more of a willingness to throw on Saturday. He's always been an extremely technical boxer as well has having very solid grappling to round out his skill set. My concern was that he just relied on his technical skill too much and wasn't throwing strikes with enough volume to consistently win rounds without the ability to get a ton of knock downs or huge moments. Allen showed more willingness to exchange and throw extended combinations than he had in the past. He also looked to be throwing his strikes with more power. Dan Hooker isn't an easy guy to hurt, so putting him on wobbly legs is definitely something to note. I also really like that he opened up and went for the finish aggressively once it was clear Hooker was compromised. We didn't really see him push to finish Sodiq Yusuff in the same way in his previous fight, so it was good to see an overall increase in aggression from Allen all around. The fight didn't really last long enough for me to say much else to be honest. We didn't get to see any grappling or wrestling from him, but we already know he's very solid there. Arnold Allen is probably 1, but at most 2 wins away from fighting for the featherweight title.
The way the featherweight division is setting up, Arnold Allen will need one more win to get to the title shot and it is looking like his call out of Calvin Kattar was the right one to make. Let me explain. In a few weeks, we'll see Alexander Volkanovski defend his title against Chan Sung Jung. Prior to that, it was supposed to be Max Holloway, but an injury forced him out of the fight. The rumor is that the UFC is going to book Max to fight Josh Emmett and if they want that to be the number one contender fight, I imagine they'll get that on the schedule soon so that the timelines align as nicely as possible. If Max wins, he'll likely get the title shot that he was originally set to get in early April. If Josh Emmett wins, the title shot is almost certainly his as no one besides Volkanovski has beaten Holloway at featherweight since 2013 (Holloway did lose to Dustin Poirier in 2019, but that was a lightweight bout). Yair Rodriguez and Brian Ortega are both coming off of losses and are booked to be fighting each other next. I don't think one win will be enough to put them into a title shot. It seems to make sense to me that Arnold Allen should fight Calvin Kattar maybe in the late summer or early fall, whenever that Volkanovski vs Holloway/Emmett fight is booked. Of course, it is possible that Holloway just sits and gets that title shot anyways, in which case, I think Allen vs Emmett should be the number one contender fight with Kattar fighting the winner of Ortega vs Yair. I really things are that simple right now at the top of featherweight. Any other permutation would be criminal. If the UFC wants to book the Holloway vs Emmett fight as the number one contender bout, then that's fine, but Allen vs Kattar would have to be lined up as the following number one contender bout. If not, then Allen vs Emmett is the number one contender fight if Max just waits for the trilogy (assuming Volkanovski gets passed the Zombie).
Where do I start with Dan Hooker? He's had such a rough time. For him to lose like this again is just so disappointing because we all love Dan. I don't think he's at risk of being released or anything like that, so I'm not needing talked off the ledge, but he's going to have to turn it around here sometime soon. I think he looked good at featherweight and I am in favor of him staying there for the time being. I don't think Dan looked bad or anything, but he's just finding himself against the toughest possible competition who all go on to fight for a title within their next 3 fights it seems. I think the main thing from Saturday specifically that I noticed is that Hooker didn't seem to be looking to use his range as much as I would have thought. He seemed to be, not only willing, but actually looking to trade with Allen in the pocket. That seems to be a bit of an odd call, but I did feel coming into this one that he had the greater potential to get a finish, so I guess from that point of view, it could have favored him, but it isn't what I would have done. He got hit with a really nice combination that hurt him and Allen jumped on the opportunity. Hooker never got the opportunity to recover and ultimately just couldn't throw enough strikes back to stop the referee from stepping in. I really think Dan needs to take a step back in terms of competition and just try to reset a little bit.
If this were a couple of years ago, this would have been a ridiculous thing to say. The UFC never allowed fighters to take a step back or have a tune up fight. However, they did this win Anthony Smith recently and it worked very well for him. He was having a really tough stretch with some brutal losses. With all due respect to Devin Clark, he wasn't at the same level of guy that Smith had been fighting and it served as a reset for Anthony Smith. He has since bounced back in a big way and has found his way all the way back into the top 5. I think this is the exact same approach that the UFC needs to take with Dan Hooker. Unfortunately for him, featherweight is a lot deeper than light heavyweight, so if he faces someone in the 16-20 range, that is still a really tough fight. I think an opponent in the range of Edson Barboza or Shane Burgos could make some sense for him. Those are on the higher end of the range I think they should be looking for, but I think those are still reasonable. I think someone like Alex Cacares, Andre Fili, or Cub Swanson is the type of fight that Hooker should be looking at next time. I think he just needs to get out of the spotlight and out of these really big fights against the toughest a division has to offer. Give him a fight to reset and work his way back up. Put him in a position to be the hunter instead of the hunted. I think that is what is in the best interest of everyone in the immediate future.
What do you guys think? How many fights away from the title is Arnold Allen? It has to be Kattar or Emmett next for him right? What is the best course of action for Dan Hooker? Who do you want to see him fight next? Leave your thoughts in the comments. Thanks for reading and have a good one.
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