UFC Vegas 63 Preview (Kattar vs. Allen)
The UFC is heading back to the Apex in Las Vegas for UFC Vegas 63 on Saturday October 29. The main event will be a major featherweight fight between #5 Calvin Kattar and #6 Arnold Allen.
Kattar is trying to rebound from a split decision loss to Josh Emmett in June in a fight that many pundits believe he won. Nonetheless Kattar has lost two of his last three fights but has a huge opportunity against Allen to prove he is a still a title contender at 145 pounds.
The 34-year-old commented on the judge’s decision in his last fight. “It’s frustrating,” said Kattar. “There is an inconsistency with the judges. It’s tough any time you leave it to them, but when you leave it to them, they should be capable of doing their job. I’ve seen worse robberies, but at the end of the day, I feel like they got the decision wrong.”
While Kattar does think he won the fight against Emmett, he is focused on Allen now. “I climbed the cage, I put my hands up, and I felt like I did enough to win the fight,” Kattar says. “Two of the three judges had me winning three of the five rounds. It’s tough. But at the end of the day, I have a new bout agreement and my focus is on the opponent at hand.”
“I’m not thinking about anyone but Arnold Allen,” Kattar says. “You pay for it when you don’t pay proper respect to the guy in front of you. All our attention is on Allen. I know we have a tough stretch in front of us, but so does he. He’s my sole focus.”
The Massachusetts native knows what a win over Allen means for him in the featherweight division. “Allen is a tough up-and-comer, and we’re both going to have our hands full come fight night,” Kattar says. “My plan is to give him a hell of a fight on Saturday, and show why I belong at the top of the division.”
Kattar has key wins in his career over Giga Chikadze, Dan Ige, Jeremy Stephens, Ricardo Lamas and Shane Burgos. A win over Allen would put a stop to one of the UFC’s best winning streaks and remind everyone that Kattar still belongs in the title talks at 145 pounds.
Allen is coming off the most impressive win of his career where he stopped Dan Hooker in the first round by TKO in March. The win was his 11th straight, he is 9-0 in the UFC, and he has not lost since 2014. Kattar is comfortable fighting headliners now working on the fifth of his UFC career, Allen will be fighting his first.
Allen believes the wear and tear that Kattar will show due to headlining wars will work to his advantage. “I look at it as a positive,” Allen said. “He’s got miles on the clock. He’s had those five-round wars and even the fights he’s won, he’s taken a lot of damage. So I look at it as mileage.”
The English fighter knows he is in for a tough fight with Kattar. “He’s dangerous in every fight,” Allen said. “There’s no quit in him. Even when he got battered by Max Holloway, he’s still trying to find a win the whole way through. There’s a big argument someone would’ve thrown the towel in, but he never quit. He was trying to win the whole way through it. So fair play. He’s as tough as he comes.
“I believe in my power. I believe if I can connect I can hurt anyone in the division. I can put anyone away in the division. But I’m prepared to do five rounds. And it’d be kinda good to do it.”
With featherweight champion Alexander Volkanovski likely moving up to challenge for the lightweight title, both fighters have been mentioned in a potential interim featherweight title fight with a win on Saturday. Kattar’s last opponent Josh Emmett would likely be the other fighter linked to an interim title fight, so for Kattar a win by finish is needed. For Allen, a win on Saturday would be business as usual.
The Rest of the Main Card:
Welterweight - Max Griffin vs. Tim Means
Heavyweight - Jared Vanderaa vs. Waldo Cortes-Acosta
Middleweight - Josh Fremd vs. Tresean Gore
Light Heavyweight - Dustin Jacoby vs. Khalil Rountree Jr.
ESPN + Prelims:
Middleweight - Phil Hawes vs. Roman Dolidze
Heavyweight - Andrei Arlovski vs. Marcos Rogério de Lima
Middleweight - Park Jun-yong vs. Joseph Holmes
Featherweight - Chase Hooper vs. Steve Garcia
Flyweight - Carlos Mota vs. Cody Durden
Bantamweight - Christian Rodriguez vs. Joshua Weems
