Suffolk’s Arnold Allen will look to extend his eight-fight winning run and move into the world’s top ten featherweight fighters when he squares off with dangerous puncher Josh Emmett in January.
Trimely St Martin's Allen, 25, is a perfect 6-0 in the world famous UFC, and boasts a 15-1 slate overall - but faces his toughest test to date in knockout danger Emmett when they meet at UFC Fight Night 167 in Raleigh, North Carolina on January 25.
It's a huge opportunity for the Suffolk southpaw though - he's currently ranked 14th in the world, with Emmett sat in tenth. A win over the American would surely push Allen, who now trains at the famed Tristar Gym in Montreal, into the top ten.
He's not put a foot wrong since signing with the UFC, winning all six of his fights - two by choke - and dominating legend of the sport Gilbert Melendez at UFC 239 in July last time out.
But he'll have to be on top of his game to make Emmett win number seven in the UFC - the 34-year-old American (15-2 MMA, 6-2 UFC) boasts a strong wrestling background and a bomb of a right hand.
Never was that more impressive than when he starched Michael Johnson with a single shot back in March, the KO punch coming in the third round of a fight in which he had probably lost the first two rounds.
Emmett's won two in a row by stoppage, and has seen off well-known names like Mirsad Bektic, Johnson and Ricardo Llamas in his UFC run, though he was stopped by perennial contender Jeremy Stephens in the second round of their dispute in February 2018.
This fight, three days after Allen turns 26, would seem to make it unlikely that the Suffolk prodigy will compete at the annual UFC London event atthe O2 Arena on March 21, a show which he's fought on for the past three years.
The UFC Fight Night 167 card will be topped by a heavyweight clash between fast-rising contender Curtis Blaydes and former champion Junior dos Santos.
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