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This weekend sees the UFC return to London for their latest Fight Night. With a number of the UK’s top fighters competing on the card, this should be a great show.
UFC Fight Night: Alexander Volkov vs. Tom Aspinall features a number of excellent fights on tap, with some great-sounding matches on both the main card and the prelims.
So with at least a handful of $50k bonuses on offer, which fighters will put on the best show when they step into the octagon this weekend?
Here are five contenders for the Fight of the Night award at this weekend’s UFC event.
#5. UFC lightweight: Ilia Topuria vs. Jai Herbert
Georgian lightweight prospect Ilia Topuria has already found himself heavily in the spotlight this week thanks to a wild confrontation with fellow prospect Paddy Pimblett, despite the two men not being scheduled to face one another.
Topuria will be looking to make the most of his newly-found fame this weekend, but it won’t be easy. He’s faced with a tricky opponent in the form of the UK’s Jai Herbert.
Based on what we’ve seen previously from these two lightweights, this could be a truly fantastic fight. Of the two men, it’s hard to dispute the idea that Topuria is the more proven, but Herbert is no slouch in his own right.
Topuria is currently 3-0 in the UFC. While his first bout there went the distance, he’s finished his other two opponents via knockout, meaning he has 10 finishes on his overall ledger. Essentially, he’s wildly aggressive on both the ground and the feet.
Herbert, meanwhile, was involved in one of 2020’s wildest UFC fights alongside Francisco Trinaldo. While he came out on the wrong end of a knockout in that one, his last bout saw him take out fellow heavy hitter Khama Worthy in violent fashion.
Overall, it’s likely that these two men will meet in the middle of the octagon and exchange until one goes down, making it a surefire contender for the Fight of the Night award.
#4. UFC heavyweight: Shamil Abdurakhimov vs. Sergei Pavlovich
Everyone knows that the UFC brass love a good heavyweight brawl. While this weekend’s main event between Alexander Volkov and Tom Aspinall features two of the promotion’s better big men in action, the wilder heavyweight bout could be on the undercard.
The fight in question sees Dagestani brawler Shamil Abdurakhimov face heavy-handed Russian Sergei Pavlovich in a clash that is highly likely to end in a knockout.
Sure, Abdurakhimov is not always the most entertaining fighter to watch, as he dragged both Andrei Arlovski and Derrick Lewis into slower-paced slogs. However, at times, he can be entertaining, particularly if he’s on the wrong end of some heavy blows.
That seems likely to happen this weekend. Pavlovich has not fought since October 2019, but prior to his absence, he looked like one of the hottest heavyweight prospects in the world, with a total of 14 wins to his name, 11 of which came by knockouts.
Essentially, Pavlovich is likely to keep this one on the feet and force Abdurakhimov into a brawl. On paper that should favor the Russian, but as it’s heavyweight MMA, you never know.
Therefore, if these two big punches get into a wild exchange, it could definitely produce a Fight of the Night contender.
#3. UFC lightweight: Paddy Pimblett vs. Kazula Vargas
On the face of it, the truth is that the UFC are probably hoping that the lightweight bout between Paddy Pimblett and Kazula Vargas doesn’t actually produce a Fight of the Night contender.
In fact, due to his highly marketable personality, the promotion would probably prefer Pimblett to pick up a one-sided win. However, will that really be the case?
The answer is, perhaps. After all, Pimblett has more overall MMA experience than Vargas and appears to be light years beyond the Mexican on the ground, particularly given 'Kazula's bad loss to Alex da Silva Coelho in that area in 2019.
However, as we saw when ‘The Baddy’ fought Luigi Vendramini in his octagon debut, Pimblett tends to fight in a wildly aggressive manner, meaning that he can find himself in trouble against opponents he ought to beat more easily.
Therefore, if the native of Liverpool decides to brawl with Vargas, even if he ends up taking the path of least resistance by taking him down later in the fight, we could be in for serious fireworks, making this an outside bet for the Fight of the Night award.
#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.
