UFC’s English prospect Arnold Allen announced himself to the London crowd on Saturday night with a dominant victory over Makwan Amirkhani.
According to Allen’s admissions, many of the English fans of the sport had no idea who he was before beating Finland’s Amirkhani on Saturday’s UFC Fight Night 107 card at The O2 Arena in London:
“To be fair, I haven’t proven myself,” Allen told MMAjunkie.“Maybe now, but I see on social media, bloody English fans saying on the UFC’s posts, ‘Who’s Arnold Allen? He’s going to get his ass kicked. Who’s this guy?’
“C’mon. I’m homegrown, man. Give me some love.”
While Allen could simply put the lack of recognition or appreciation down to his opponent’s higher profile, there is absolutely no question that fans will be keeping a close eye on the Suffolk-native following his tremendous performance against SBG Ireland’s Amirkhani. Allen put a stop to Fin’s three-fight UFC win streak, to take his own record in the promotion to 3-0:
“I knew this was the breakout fight,” he said. “I said it before the fight. People will start knowing who I am, and maybe people will stop me and my dog on High Street – I don’t know.”
Allen, 23, is one of Britain’s top prospects, and will undoubtedly edge towards his demands to be more recognized in his home country if he continues to perform as he did in London on Saturday night.
