Arnold Allen Picks Sodiq Yusuff Apart To UD Victory At UFC Vegas 23
The UFC returns to us this evening with UFC Vegas 23, headlined by top ten ranked middleweight talents Marvin Vettori and Kevin Holland and the co-main event of Arnold Allen vs. Sodiq Yusuff.
The main event was initially had Vettori slated against Darren Till, but Till withdrew with an injury and was replaced by Holland about ten days ago.
Co-headlining the event is a very intriguing featherweight bout between Arnold Allen and Sodiq Yusuff.
Allen comes into the bout ranked at No. 10 in the world at 145 lbs, while Yusuff comes in ranked at No. 11. This should be a very telling fight to see where each of these young men are at in their respective careers.
Both of these talents have been flawless thus far inside the octagon, with Allen being 16-1 (7-0 UFC), and Yusuff being 11-1 (4-0 UFC). Neither of these two have fought since January of 2020 either, where Allen defeated Nik Lentz, and Yusuff defeated Andre Fili, both via unanimous decision. So really, this was the perfect fight to make.
Continue reading to see how this epic featherweight scrap went down:
Official Result: Arnold Allen def. Sodiq Yusuff via unanimous decision (29-28, 29-28, 29-28)
Round 1
Yusuff takes the center once the fight starts and is throwing heavy bombs early, as expected.
Allen catches one of Yusuff’s body kicks and takes him down with it. Yusuff locks in a guillotine choke that he uses to sweep Allen and get back up to his feet.
Allen gets his left cross going very well in the opening round, and even dropped Yusuff and had him hurt pretty badly with it. He followed up but was unable to secure the finish.
Round 2
Allen picks up in round two where he left off in the first, picking his shots and finding a home for his left cross.
Yusuff is also starting to find a home for his cross though, he isn’t winding up and throwing heavy hook-like shots like he was in the first. Allen catches Yusuff with a beautifully timed and placed round kick that nearly finished the fight.
Yusuff was hurt so badly, even worse than in round one, but was able to keep his composure and continue.
Round 3
Allen comes out and presses Yusuff into the fence right at the start of round three, and secures a momentary double leg before Yusuff hipped his way out of it.
Yusuff now has Allen turned into the fence, and holds him there for about a minute before separating.
Allen appears to be fading as the fight goes on, while Yusuff is still as fresh as he was at the start, to our surprise.
Yusuff ties up with Allen again and again has Allen’s back to the fence, controlling him at will, before Allen spins him back around with about a minute left. This has turned into a very entertaining, competitive fight between two absolute studs!
Allen nearly walks away the victor via knockout in rounds one and two, and Yusuff comes together in round three.
Arnold Allen now holds the second longest win streak in the featherweight division at eight, just behind UFC featherweight champion Alexander Volkanovski, who’s sitting comfortably at nine.
