The UFC comes to Kansas City tonight for another Fight Night on ESPN, featuring some of the best fighters in the world, including several who are ranked in their respective weight classes. Coming off of a big pay-per-view event, we’ll see if the month of April can give us some more great fights.
A former featherweight champion will look to right the ship after coming out on the wrong side of a rivalry while a very promising young contender will look to use him as a launchpad. Plus, two more featherweight contenders will square off for a chance to climb the rankings and two ranked light heavyweights will look to do the same.
Light Heavyweight bout: Dustin Jacoby vs. Azamat Murzakanov
These hard-hitting light heavyweights are going to look to put on a show in order to jump up from the bottom of the top 15 in the class. Jacoby comes into this bout with an 18-6 record and 11 knockouts. More interestingly, he’s also coming off of his first UFC loss and his first defeat of any kind since 2015. It will be interesting to see how he bounces back after having a a four-fight winning streak snapped. He may just be even more dangerous now thant he ever was before.
On the other hand, Murzakanov comes into this fight at a perfect 12-0 with nine knockout victories. This will be just his third fight in the UFC but his previous two ended with him scoring a knockout. Currently ranked at 15 in the division, a third straight knockout woul certainly put the rest of the division on notice and would certainly vault him up the ranks at least a little bit. This should be a slugfest and a whole lot of fun for the fans.
Featherweight bout: Edson Barboza vs.Billy Quarantillo
Personal story time. As a UFC fan in college, I would often watch UFC pay-per-view events on my laptop in my dorm room. Thanks to unreliable campus wifi, the quality was never exactly ideal. During a 2012 meeting between Barboza and Terry Etim, my stream froze for an extended period of time. When it finally came back, Etim was flat on his back in the center of the octagon with the commentary team yelling something along the lines of “that was the most spectacular knockout in the history of the UFC!” The moral of the story is, don’t blink when you’re watching Edson Barboza. And make sure you have reliable wifi. At 22-11 with 13 knockouts, the veteran featherweight contender is one of the most dynamic and exciting strikers in the history of the sport.
Quarantillo, while also dangerous on the feet, is a bit more well-rounded. He steps into the octagon with a 17-4 record, eight knockouts and five submissions. He’s coming off of an impressive knockout of Alexander Hernandez in December, which brought his UFC record to 5-2. It will be interesting to see if he’s willing to strike with Barboza, and if he is, this will be a very fun fight. Otherwise, this could be quite the chess match.
Featherweight bout: Max Holloway vs. Arnold Allen
The featherweight division is currently led by one of the pound-for-pound best in the world. Behind him is an interim champ, a former champ, a former interim champ and a plethora of young contenders who look ready to take that next step. Allen is one of those contenders but to take that next step, he has to first beat the aforementioned former champ.
It wasn’t that long ago that Holloway was in contention for the top pound-for-pound spot in the world. The former featherweight champ currently sits at 23-7 with10 knockouts and that’s after losing three of his last five fights, all to current champion Alexander Volkanovski. In between the losses, Holloway shut down young contenders Yair Rodriguez and Calvin Katter, reminding everyone he still belongs atop this division. Now, he’s going to have another very tough young contender to deal with if he wants to work his way back up to another potential shot at the title.
As for that young contender, Allen comes into the fight with a 19-1 record, seven knockouts and four submissions. He’s riding a 12-fight winning streak and hasn’t lost sine 2014. He’s also perfect since joining the UFC, with two of his 10 wins coming by submission and another two by TKO, though one of those was an unfortunate knee injury to Kattar. Now, the seventh-ranked contender will look to stay perfect in the octagon and pick up the biggest win of his career against the former champ. If he can pull that off, a title shot could be in his future.
UFC Fight Night: Holloway vs. Allen will be held Saturday, April 15 at 8:30 PM ET. Fight fans can watch live on ESPN+.