4. Arnold Allen vs Giga Chikadze
Any of these first few fights could turn out being the best fight on UFC 304 card and Arnold Allen vs Giga Chikadze is no exception. Despite being on a two-fight losing streak, his performances in those fights endeared him more to fans than most of the wins on his prior ten-fight UFC winning streak. His competitive fight against Max Holloway – charging straight at him in the fifth round when down on the scorecards, and winning that round by just leaving it all out there – showed fans the heart that the Brit possesses in spades, passed down from his father, a strongman who competed in MMA five times himself.
Giga Chikadze is a tad bit harder to pin down at the moment. He has had several eras. First, he beat up on some of the worst pre-UFC opponents I have seen anyone decent face, then lost on the Contender Series to a fighter who went 0-1 in the UFC before retiring. However, once he did get into the UFC he went on a seven-fight winning streak that earned him the number eight ranking at 145-lbs. Yet even that winning streak had two eras with him initially beating (and arguably losing to) some truly mediocre opposition, but once he finally knocked out the worst fighter of the bunch he went on a two-fight tear of knocking out actual good fighters Cub Swanson and Edson Barboza. Then he lost brutally to Calvin Kattar, took eighteen months off, and came back to scrape a decision over Alex Caceres.
A big part of Giga’s success is the body kick to the liver though, which will not be there on a southpaw, especially a well-schooled one like Allen. Arnold is highly intelligent and fights with a craft and technique which you would not believe if you saw him blitzing like a madman in the final moments of a round, something he does often, not just against Holloway. I expect neither man to truly find a major edge on the feet, but Allen is certainly a rounded enough fighter to wrestle Chikadze like Kattar did – but only after getting the respect on the feet. After the first round it becomes a lot easier to deal with Giga by putting him under pressure which will eventually can break him – unless he has improved enough in the last two-and-a-half years since the Kattar fight.
Giga is no spring chicken though, he was already exiting his physical prime when he debuted in the UFC after a lengthy kickboxing career, and it is hard to truly escape the ‘kickboxer who cannot wrestle’ archetype at this age. Only Alex Pereira and Stephen ‘Wonderboy’ Thompson have been able to become more than that after entering the UFC so late in their athletic careers. Any top-fifteen featherweight fight in the UFC would be ranked highly, but this one has additional intrigue in a few ways. Will Giga have improved after his inactivity? Will Allen mix it up in a way he has not lately? Is either one of these men on the cusp of a UFC title shot? It is certainly possible, but they will have to show it on Saturday night in Manchester.
Though, technically it will be Sunday morning.
