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MMA: Mixed Martial Arts

Arnold Allen isn’t thrilled with how his fight against Movsar Evloev went down.

In January, Allen’s fight with Evloev at UFC 297 was beset by controversy. In the third round, he landed a series of knees to Evloev’s head while Evloev had his fingertips on the canvas. While those blows would have been considered legal in some other jurisdictions, in Canada, Evloev was considered a downed fighter, and so referee Marc Goddard intervened. That allowed Evloev to reset and get checked out by the doctor before resuming the action. Evloev went on to win a unanimous decision, and Allen now finds himself on the first losing streak of his career.

Speaking with Ariel Helwani on Monday’s The MMA Hour, Allen addressed the controversy and gave his perspective on what went down in the cage that night.

“Being a ref must be a thankless job because you make the right call, no one says good job,” Allen said. “You make the wrong call, everyone says bad job. So I get it if maybe there’s a blurred line with that rule, it’s not unanimous everywhere. It is what it is. Maybe from his angle, the rules are what they are in the state.

“But I’ve seen slow-motions of it and I was trying to pull him off the canvas every time to make it as legal as possible. I did think it was legal to knee him with the fingertips on the canvas but I was like, ‘Alright, I’m going to pull him up and knee hard as a I lift him up.’ I’ve seen the slo-mos, his hand is up every time. But in that moment, it’s tough to see what’s going on and to make that call. …

“It just needs to be a solid thing everywhere. It’s so frustrating. You wouldn’t have it in football where you go to play in Brazil and they’re playing different rules. The game is the same wherever they play.”

Arnold doesn’t believe the difference in the grounded fighter rules in Canada was made clear to him before the fight, though he does allow that he simply could have missed the instruction with all the other pre-fight activity going on.

“Before the fight is all a bit of a haze,” Allen said. “You’ve got the adrenaline, apprehension and all that. But I don’t think so. I’m pretty sure I asked something about that and was told everything was normal. But maybe that’s just my memory of it. I’m in the zone just sort of locked in. But in my mind, it was everything was normal.”

Following the fight, California State Athletic Commission director Andy Foster submitted a proposal to the Association of Boxing Commissions for a new grounded fighter rule. The rule would remove the vague language around fingertips as and instead make it so that fighters are down only when a body part other than hands and feet is on the canvas.

For Allen, the loss is still a tough pill to swallow. He felt the tide was turning before Goddard stepped in, but he’s doing his best to make peace with it.

“It’s all good saying it, but I did feel like I was on the way to a finish,” Allen said. “It makes me look like a sore loser saying it, so I don’t want to be like, ‘Oh, I would have finished it.’ But any fighter, anyone in the sport will know, when you’re in a fight and you hit someone with a shot, or you feel a submission come on, you can feel, ‘This is it. He’s hurt. I’m closing in on this.’ But fair play to him. He didn’t play it up, he didn’t act it up. The doctor came in and had a look and he didn’t complain. He got straight back into it. So all respect to him on that. …

“It definitely sucks. It’s a big kick in the ball. But it’s part of the game. It’s a ruthless sport. You can do everything right and still not get the result. He’s a top competitor. It was never going to be an easy task when we took it.”

Allen, 30, doesn’t want to wait too long before accepting his next task. Now on the first losing streak of his career, he hopes to return to the octagon this summer for the UFC’s rumored return to England so he can get back on the winning track on home soil.

“Maybe summer,” Allen said. “I’ve got a couple of old injuries I need to fix. It was a long camp. So summer would be nice. Someone said something to me a bout July [for the return to England]. July would be cool. I’ve got to see a doctor this week about a couple of things, but hopefully nothing crazy. It shouldn’t be anything crazy.”

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MMA: Mixed Martial Arts

The upcoming Bellator 302 card in Belfast needs a new co-main event after Leah McCourt was forced to pull out of her fight with Sinead Kavanagh.

With McCourt out of the March 22 event, the fight with Kavanagh has been pulled from the card, multiple people with knowledge of the shift told MMA Fighting on Tuesday following an initial report from Severe MMA.

Following news that the fight had been cancelled, McCourt issued a lengthy statement addressing the injury that will prevent her from competing in March.

“Devastated to have to write this and let you know during a sparring accident, I sustained a broken rib and torn oblique,” McCourt wrote on Twitter. “I cannot get medically cleared to fight nor could I physically be able to fight in Belfast. This may require surgery and will know more in the next few weeks. The muscle has been ripped from the bone and the pain is excruciating. When I didn’t get the title fight, I asked what fight wanted, it was this so especially disappointed.

“I don’t understand the heartbreak and pain of circumstances of everything that’s happened so far this year, but I trust God’s plan that all these things are part of something big and better ahead. I have fought with torn ligaments, blown out knees, everything, and this is the first time an injury has been too serious to be able to fight, as I [was] warned the break could puncture an organ if I don’t do as [the] surgeon has requested and have total rest. I will do everything I can to return as soon as possible.”

Read McCourt’s full statement below:

It’s an unfortunate blow to the first Bellator card under the PFL banner since the promotion was sold in late 2023. It’s even worse for McCourt, who was promised a title shot against Bellator featherweight champion Cris Cyborg before the sale was finalized. Cyborg has been rumored for an eventual showdown with PFL featherweight champion Larissa Pacheco, but there’s no word when that matchup might actually happen.

The PFL will not feature a women’s featherweight division in the season-long tournament format in 2024, so more of those fighters will likely appear in Bellator throughout the year.

That leaves McCourt in limbo as she recovers from her injury with no clear sign when she might compete again – or what it will take to eventually earn a title shot.

Bellator officials have not made any announcement regarding the change to the upcoming card in Belfast, or if Kavanagh could potentially face a new opponent with McCourt sidelined.

Bellator 302 is headlined by a light heavyweight title fight as Corey Anderson clashes with Karl Moore. The title fight crowns a new champion at 205 pounds after Vadim Nemkov vacated the belt to move to heavyweight.

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All Planned
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Ariel Helwani explains how Pereira vs. Hill ended up as the UFC 300 main event, and why other options didn’t come together.

After weeks of anticipation and some extreme scrambling from the UFC, we now have our UFC 300 main event. Light heavyweight champion Alex Pereira will defend his belt against Jamahal Hill, which is a solid fight if a bit anti-climactic after all the endless hype and speculation.

How exactly did we end up here, with Pereira vs. Hill coming out of leftfield to take the headliner role on April 13th? On the latest episode of The MMA Hour, Ariel Helwani dug into the announcement and what other fights the UFC was working on with just two months left until showtime.

“I can tell you with 1000% certainty that [Pereira vs. Hill] was slated to be the main event for UFC 301,” Helwani said. “They announced Saturday, May 4th they’re going back to Rio [de Janeiro] for a pay-per-view. The main event was supposed to be Alex Pereira vs. Jamahal Hill.”

“This all came together yesterday, [Hill] said,” Helwani continued. “According to Pereira’s team it came together like two days before the announcement. This wasn’t the top choice. I don’t even know if it was the fifth choice.”

“As I said last Monday, they wanted Leon [Edwards] vs. Khamzat [Chimaev] … [Leon] said they offered him three fights: Khamzat, top choice. Some talk of Shavkat [Rakhmonov]. Some talk of even Islam [Makhachev]. He said yes to all of them. Never said specific names, but trust me on this one. Amazingly, Belal [Muhammad] not one of them!”

You can blame Ramadan, travel sanctions, and an ankle injury on Leon’s three potential opponents not materializing. As for Israel Adesanya vs. Dricus Du Plessis, which was the fight many had been hoping for? It sounds like Dricus may have been a bit too beat up following his split decision win over Sean Strickland on January 20th.

“Izzy vs. DDP was another one on the table,” Helwani said. “Those three Leon fights and Izzy vs. DDP. My understanding was the timing just didn’t work out for DDP. And I still think that should be the next title fight, but it didn’t work out [for UFC 300]. I think Izzy was in, but the timing just didn’t work out.”

“Bit of a quick turnaround [for Du Plessis] coming off of January. Not as quick as July to September, but the timing just didn’t work out.”

This is the second time Du Plessis hasn’t been able to accommodate the UFC’s requests for an immediate turnaround. “Stillknocks” beat Robert Whittaker in July 2023 and was asked to fight Israel Adesanya in Australia for September. He took a lot of heat from Dana White for turning that one down. Will he end up taking even more once the dust settles on this UFC 300 booking fiasco?

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MMA: Mixed Martial Arts

Many MMA observers believe UFC 300’s headliner is Dricus du Plessis vs. Israel Adesanya, and any rumblings to the contrary are the usual head-fakes that accompany a group of people trying to keep big news secret.

The middleweights have built-in beef and would have fought this past year had Sean Strickland not thrown a wrench into plans. But there’s at least one person who thinks it’s a bad idea, and that’s former UFC flyweight champ and current ONE champ Demetrious Johnson.

“I don’t like that fight for Izzy, because I feel Izzy hasn’t taken enough time,” Johnson said Wednesday on The MMA Hour.

After Strickland’s upset win, time off was the order of the day for Adesanya. “The Last Stylebender” announced a hiatus from the sport to make changes to his lifestyle and heal from lingering injuries.

When du Plessis snatched the belt from Strickland, and UFC 300 remained without a headliner, Adesanya saw an opportunity and teased an early comeback.

Du Plessis has since backtracked on the possibility of fighting Adesanya at UFC 300, though he expects the ex-champ to be his next fight. Johnson believes for Adesanya to be successful, he’ll need to change things about his style.

“My question to Izzy would be, ‘Izzy, have you taken the time to add more tools to your toolset,’ because if I was looking at that fight right now, strategically, one of the things Izzy likes to do, he likes to back up,” Johnson said. “He likes to counter a punch. So if he likes to counter a punch, DDP does a good job of not overextending. He doesn’t back up. He usually takes the center of the cage and he moves forward, and goes to the center and he goes either southpaw or orthodox.

“Now, Izzy, he likes to kick, he likes to poke – poke, poke and then hit somebody. That’s what he likes to do. He does it all the time. … You look at his past fights: Alex Pereira, he did overextend, but he also got in a gunfight; Yoel Romero, he didn’t overextend; Sean Strickland, he doesn’t overextend.

“So for me, if I was in Izzy’s camp, I’d be like, ‘Hey Izzy, we’re working on your clinch game, we’re working on your wrestling game, we’re working those two things, because if somebody doesn’t overextend, or come toward you, then I want you to feel comfortable enough to come forward, and if you go back and watch Izzy’s kickboxing – and woo, somebody posted a clip, and damn, that s*** looked beautiful – if I can take that kickboxing of Izzy, the pressure fighter going forward and give him a nasty clinch and a double-leg, he would be the middleweight champion. He would defeat my 11 consecutive title defenses, because his countering, his athletic ability, his strengths of countering people are phenomenal. But if somebody doesn’t overextend, is he comfortable enough to go in there and force the clinch, force the wrestling, force those things, and then when he beats him up there, he goes back to his countering, and the countering becomes a lot easier.”

During his title run, Adesanya was plagued by criticism that he didn’t engage enough, resulting in lackluster fights that more closely resembled sparring sessions than title bouts. The way Johnson sees it, adding or sharpening grappling skills is the bridge not only to beating du Plessis, but keeping an iron grip on the title.

“Has Izzy taken the time off to develop that skill set? That’s my question to him,” Johnson said. “If says, ‘No I haven’t,’ I’m like, then don’t take the fight. If he has, if he’s ready to go out there and force the fight, get in the clinch, force the wrestling, take him down, pass his guard, then I’m like, ‘Let’s f****** do it.’

“But if you haven’t, then I wouldn’t do it, because DDP, he’s got a style where he doesn’t back up, he doesn’t overextend. He’s very good at his shell. He’s very clunky on the feet, but I just don’t like that matchup stylistically. But I’m always going to root for Izzy, because I’m a big fan of his. But as a martial artist, I’m like, no, you need time to develop those things in your game that I see you’re missing.”

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Jamahal Hill is taking a page out of Ilia Topuria’s playbook.

Hill — a former light heavyweight champion who never lost the belt — will make his long-awaited return to the Octagon on April 13 to headline UFC 300. Sweet Dreams’ was forced to vacate the belt six months removed from his title-winning performance against Glover Teixeira in January 2023. In his absence, Alex Pereira has risen to the top of the division, claiming his second UFC title after just seven fights with the promotion.

With only two months to prepare and coming off an Achilles injury, the deck certainly appears to be stacked against Jamahal Hill. Still, the ex-champ is nonetheless confident in his ability to get the job done and once again wrap UFC gold around his waist.

In fact, Hill is so confident that he’s already updated his Instagram profile to read, “Undisputed UFC LHW Champion of The World.”

UFC Fans are not convinced that Jamahal Hill can Duplicate Ilia Topuria’s Result

Newly crowned featherweight world champion Ilia Topuria did the exact same thing weeks ahead of his UFC 298 title tilt with Alexander Volkanovski, declaring himself the 145-pound king on social media long before taking his seat on the throne.

Needless to say, Hill is more than confident in his ability to produce a result similar to Topuria’s, but UFC fans are not exactly convinced.

“Alex sending this guy to the shadow realm,” one user wrote in response.

“But in this case he’ll have to edit later,” another added.

“Hill ain’t stopping Pereira. Hill couldn’t even finish an old Glover Teixeira.”

“Alex sending this guy to the shadow realm.”

Who do you see leaving Las Vegas with the light heavyweight title when Alex Pereira defends the 205-pound crown against Jamahal Hill?

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