For all intents and purposes, Arnold Allen did well in his first five-round fight.
It just wasn’t good enough for the win, however, as the Englishman knocked down a five-round referee to former UFC featherweight champion Max Holloway over the ESPN 44 title at the T-Mobile Center in Kansas City, Missouri on Saturday night. UFC President Dana White came away impressed with Allen’s performance, but would have liked more urgency from the “come” down the stretch.
“I thought it looked good,” White said. “He kept the pace, he kept the distance, he controlled the tempo of the fight. I thought Allen looked amazing. If you think about it, this is his first ever big night in a main event, the crowd is all against him and he’s come too late.
“If he fought the way [he fought] In the fifth round [from]
In the third round, he had a better chance of winning that fight. I’m no corner guard or coach, but I think there should have been a sense of urgency earlier on. But I’m not a man of corn.”
Knowing he was well behind on the scorecards, Allen did some of his best work in the fifth round, but it wasn’t enough to make the finish. With that, his UFC 10-fight winning streak was a thing of the past. However, there is a lot more Allen can build on.
“The young, the promising, he ranks in the top five and is the main event in a venue where the whole crowd cheers,” White said. “It’s a lot of pressure on the guy. I thought he handled it really well. He’s obviously talented enough. He went five rounds with Max Holloway, one of the best rounds ever.
“I think he poured it a bit too late but I’m not his assistant. I think there was a lot of mistakes made tonight in the corner,” White continued. “Obviously he’s got this experience under his belt now and they have to go back and find out what went wrong and what was broken, fix it and come back. He’s a gifted kid.”