Arnold Allen plans to pass on a homecoming fight if he\u2019s victorious at UFC 324.<\/p>\n
The Englishman has a tough test ahead of him as he faces fellow featherweight contender Jean Silva in Saturday\u2019s main card bout at T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas. Allen has been a top-ranked fighter on the UFC\u2019s 145-pound roster for years, though his path to a title shot has been hindered by inactivity and recent losses to Movsar Evloev and Max Holloway.<\/p>\n
Should he impress against Silva, Allen would prefer to stay on the championship path rather than be put in a throwaway fight at UFC London, which takes place on March 21.<\/p>\n
\u201cLook at my f*cking record,\u201d Allen said at UFC 324 media day when asked if he\u2019d make a quick turnaround for the London show. \u201cThat ain\u2019t happening. Maybe in 2013, I think I had like, six, seven fights in a year. Yeah, maybe then.<\/p>\n
\u201cI want to be elite,\u201d he added. \u201cI\u2019m not at that stage where I just want to take any fight for the sake of it. Winning here, OK, maybe don\u2019t give me a title fight, but winning here it\u2019s a No. 1 contender fight next. So I don\u2019t want to just go, \u2018Oh, have a six-week quick turnaround after,\u2019 I want to be ready, prepared for world-class fights. I want that title fight.\u201d<\/p>\n
Allen has a lot to prove Saturday, not only because he\u2019s taking on the dangerous Silva, but because of his light schedule over the past few years. The 31-year-old returned to the win column with a decision victory over Giga Chikadze, a bout that took place in July 2024 and was only Allen\u2019s sixth fight since 2020.<\/p>\n
As much criticism as he takes for spending time on the sidelines, however, Allen insists he\u2019s not solely to blame.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe other layoffs I\u2019ve had, I was ready the whole year,\u201d Allen said. \u201cIt was a lot of scheduling, \u2018We\u2019re going to the UK in six months, we\u2019ll put you in there. Keep doing that and stay ready.\u2019 I\u2019m a bit more of a name now than I was then, so I think I deserve a bit more than just a London slot once a year. Like, here I am opening up a Paramount numbered card and there\u2019s a reason I\u2019ve got that spot. The last few fights have been pay-per-views in similar positions.\u201d<\/p>\n
Making matters worse for Allen is that he\u2019s well aware of how MMA fans view his lack of in-cage activity. In fact, while he was out for 2025, he admits he spent much of the year keeping an eye on the not-so-nice things being said about him on social media.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019ve just been very depressed, sitting at home injured and reading messages from people calling me shit,\u201d Allen said. \u201c\u2018Arnold, you\u2019re shit. Why are you ranked? You shouldn\u2019t be ranked, you c*nt.\u2019 I\u2019m like, \u2018I don\u2019t f*cking sit there on Tuesday and make the rankings.\u2019 But yeah, that\u2019s what I\u2019ve been doing.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Arnold Allen plans to pass on a homecoming fight if he\u2019s victorious at UFC 324. The Englishman has…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":430513,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[570],"tags":[64,63,786,1347,785,85,787,1396],"class_list":{"0":"post-430512","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-mma","8":"tag-au","9":"tag-australia","10":"tag-fighting","11":"tag-latest-news","12":"tag-mma","13":"tag-sports","14":"tag-ufc","15":"tag-ufc-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/430512","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=430512"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/430512\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/430513"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=430512"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=430512"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=430512"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}