LONDON – Arnold Allen thinks he’s earned a top-ranked opponent.
Allen (18-1 MMA, 9-0 UFC), 28, is unbeaten in the UFC. He’s coming off a marquee first-round TKO of Dan Hooker at UFC Fight Night 204 in March and wants to start making a run toward the featherweight title.
He expressed interest in facing Calvin Kattar, whose team recently told MMA Junkie that’s a fight they also asked for. But if not Kattar, Allen just wants to move up the rankings.
“Anyone in that top five,” Allen said backstage at UFC Fight Night 208 in London this past Saturday. “I’m 9-0 in the UFC. I don’t even know my record total, but it’s pretty good I think. I feel like I deserve or if anyone deserves to fight upwards, it’s probably me. I’m 9-0 in the UFC. I just finished Dan Hooker. Give me somebody in that top five – any of them.
“I feel like a win over one of those people up there, it does put me in the talks for maybe a shot at the interim title. I don’t know – something like that.”
Allen currently is dealing with a hand injury and is targeting an end-of-year return. Whomever the rising Brit faces next, he hopes it’s a five-round contest so he can get accustomed to fighting championship rounds.
“The one thing I really want is to try and get a five-rounder,” Allen said. “My aspirations are title fights, and it would be pretty sh*t to go into a title fight never fighting a five-rounder. But if there’s a three-rounder going and that’s all there is for the end of the year, then that is what it is.”
For more on the card, visit MMA Junkie’s event hub for UFC Fight Night 208.