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#2. UFC light heavyweight: Nikita Krylov vs. Paul Craig
This weekend’s Fight Night has plenty of interesting fights on its preliminary card, but easily the best-sounding clash is the light heavyweight bout between Nikita Krylov and Paul Craig. In fact, quite how this one hasn’t been put on the main card is baffling.
Firstly, both men are currently ranked in the top fifteen at 205 pounds, with Krylov at No.9 and Craig at No.11. More to the point, though, it’s hard to recall a dull fight involving either man since their respective arrivals in the UFC.
Craig is currently on the best run of his octagon career, as ‘Bearjew’ has not lost since June 2019 and has reeled off four wins and a draw, including an impressive stoppage of Jamahal Hill last summer.
Krylov, meanwhile, has seen his last three bouts go the distance, but they certainly haven’t been dull. It’s also not like he’s been fighting scrubs, with his last two losses coming to top contender Magomed Ankalaev and reigning champion Glover Teixeira.
What makes this one a must-watch, though, is the fact that both men are aggressive to a fault, even at their own expense at times. Essentially, this fight is likely to be full of scrambles. It’s highly likely that one, or both, will make at least one error, meaning that fireworks should ensue.
This clash could turn out to be a sloppy one, but that won’t matter, it’s still likely to be a lot of fun, making it a Fight of the Night contender.
#1. UFC featherweight: Arnold Allen vs. Dan Hooker
Not only is the featherweight bout between Arnold Allen and Dan Hooker probably the best overall fight on the card from a rankings perspective, with Allen currently ranked at No.7 and Hooker in the top 10 lightweight, but it’s also the fight most likely to produce fireworks, too.
Sure, Allen has hardly been a finishing machine in the octagon thus far in his career with the promotion, as he’s only finished two of his eight opponents thus far. However, to call him a dull fighter would be unfair, as he produced plenty of action in his most recent bout against Sodiq Yusuff, in particular.
Hooker, on the other hand, has essentially produced nothing but wildly exciting fights since his debut in the promotion back in 2014. Win or lose, ‘The Hangman’ comes to leave everything in the octagon and his battles with fighters like Edson Barboza and Paul Felder were amongst the best in recent years.
That means that the New Zealand native is highly likely to force Allen into the kind of fight that he hasn’t been used to thus far: a potentially wild brawl.
Even if ‘Almighty’ finds that he can out-technique Hooker and avoid a brawl altogether, it’s still likely that ‘The Hangman’ will force him to be more aggressive than he usually is. That, coupled with Hooker’s legendary toughness, could produce an outright classic.
