Arnold Allen sat down with Ariel Helwani in his New York studio to discuss his plans, fight with Holloway, and recent downtime in the United States.
Arnold Allen has been relaxing following the defeat to Max Holloway on Saturday, April 15th, spending some time in Nashville and Kentucky before heading to New York for his partner’s birthday.
Allen told The MMA Hour that the preparation for the Holloway fight went well and said he had some good training partners at Team Renegade in Birmingham, UK, during the build-up to his bout and that he felt good about his preparation. Allen said he had reviewed the tape and still didn’t feel he had won, which matches the feelings he had immediately after the fight. Holloway not coming forward at the beginning of the fight surprised Allen as he prepared for more counter-striking to occur. Other than that, ‘Almighty’ said that not much else surprised him during the fight and believes that he let himself down.
Helwani asked Allen if he intended to fight on July 22nd in London. Allen disclosed his left hand was injured and had just had an x-ray today. If the results came back positive, he would consider fighting on the card but did say he would like a reset to allow his body to heal properly from the wear and tear he’s accumulated on his body over the last few fights. He didn’t seem optimistic as he felt his hand was broken.
Allen said Brian Ortega could be a good fight for him as they both seek redemption. Ortega is ranked #3 in the featherweight rankings and is coming off an unfortunate shoulder injury which ended his last fight against Yair Rodriguez.
Allen’s dance partner in Kansas City, Max Holloway, joined the MMA Hour afterwards and stated his intention to fight The Korean Zombie in his next bout, saying that he has always wanted to fight him and thinks it would be a fun one to add to his legacy.
‘Blessed’ went on to say he would like to fight in September:
If it’s September, it would be better. If it’s October, I’ll probably ask to go probably go a little bit sooner. cos if we fought in September, then I would like to try and get one in [a fight] before December. I wanna try and fight three times this year. I wanna be busy……I gotta catch up, I wanna hold all types of records, the most fights, the most wins, and just everything. Might as well.
Helwani asked Holloway a hypothetical – who would his choice of opponent be if he could pick one fight before his career is all said and done?
Holloway responded that he feels the fourth fight with current featherweight champion Alexander Volkanovski will happen at some point in the future. Although Volkanovski holds a 3-0 record against ‘Blessed’, another fight between the pair doesn’t seem too farfetched because if the champion stays at featherweight long term, and both he and Max keep winning, there wouldn’t really be another option, but for them to battle it out once again due to Holloway beating everyone else placed him front of him.
In answer to Helwani’s question, Holloway said a rematch with Conor McGregor would be his pick, as they are both different fighters compared to the first time they fought almost a decade ago (McGregor won via decision). Holloway would fight at any weight and said that fans ask him about it a lot.
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