UFC Fight Night 213 went down Saturday night inside the promotion's Apex facility in Las Vegas. The card was ultimately overshadowed by Jake Paul's unanimous-decision win over Anderson Silva in the boxing ring, but anybody who tuned in was treated to some fun fights and finishes.
The headlining spot was filled by a clash of featherweight contenders, as the division's No. 6-ranked fighter, Arnold Allen, took on the fifth-ranked Calvin Kattar. Arnold won the fight by second-round TKO, but it was a flukey Kattar knee injury that ended things and stripped his victory of most its value.
In the co-main event, welterweight veteran Max Griffin picked up one of the best wins of his career, earning a split decision over Tim Means with a diet of takedowns and power punches. Other big winners of the night included Khalil Rountree Jr., who defeated No. 13 light heavyweight contender Dustin Jacoby by split decision on the main card, and middleweights Roman Dolidze and Junyong Park, who finished Phil Hawes and Joseph Holmes, respectively, on the undercard.
Keep scrolling for the fights we're hoping to see when the dust has settled.
Arnold Allen vs. Josh Emmett
After beating Calvin Kattar in the UFC Fight Night 213 main event, England's Arnold Allen is on a 10-fight winning streak since making his UFC debut in 2015. Ordinarily, that would just about guarantee him a crack at featherweight champion Alexander Volkanovski, but these are not ordinary circumstances.
The first problem is that Allen's second-round TKO win came after Kattar suffered a freak knee injury in the waning moments of the first round. He looked good in the fight, sure, but it didn't do much to improve his position in the weight class. The second problem is that there are two other fighters who are also leading candidates to face Volkanovski—and both of them are riding similarly unconvincing wins. One of those fighters is No. 4 contender Josh Emmett, who is coming off a hotly debated split-decision verdict over Kattar. The other is No. 2 contender Yair Rodriguez, who recently defeated Brian Ortega by first-round TKO after his foe suffered a shoulder injury.
The long and short of it is that we have three contenders in a dead heat, and all three of them totally failed to make a statement in their latest appearances. Throw in the fact that all signs point to Volkanovski taking a hiatus from the featherweight division to challenge Islam Makhachev for the lightweight belt, and we've definitely got a weird situation on our hands.
This could all shake out any number of ways for Allen. He could end up being the next man to challenge Volkanovski, he could have to win two more fights in the meantime, or he could end up in an interim title fight if the UFC chooses to go that route while Volkanovski goes up to lightweight.
Our pick is the latter option. If Volkanovski is indeed fighting Makhachev, let's create an interim featherweight title to keep the division moving in his stead. And if we're doing that, let's have Allen and Emmett fight for it. Allen, as we've covered, has won 10 straight, while Emmett has won five. Rodriguez is a stud, but he's still only one win removed from a loss to Max Holloway, and that win was all thanks to Ortega's shoulder injury. His claim is just not quite as strong.
Read more at https://bleacherreport.com/articles/10054086-5-fights-we-need-to-see-after-ufc-fight-night-213
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