Movsar Evloev vs Arnold Allen Prediction: Outcome Depends on Wrestling

On the night of January 21st, Canada will host UFC 297 with Strickland vs du Plessis as the main event. A confrontation between undefeated Russian Movsar Evloev and Englishman Arnold Allen will headline the event's main card. The bout will take place in the light heavyweight division. In the rating of this division, Evloev occupies the ninth line, and Allen is the third.

Movsar Yevloev occupies the ninth position in the rating, which is undeservedly low. In the UFC, he won seven fights in a row, and for his career, he has not suffered a single defeat yet. In 2017, Movsar became the Russian league M-1 Global champion, defending the title thrice. In 2019 he changed the lightest weight category to light heavyweight and moved to the UFC. For some reason, he hasn't faced any superstars to tear apart (only Dan Ige is an exception with reservations). Arnold Allen will undoubtedly be the strongest opponent in his career. In his last fight, Yevloev easily dealt with Diego Lopez.

For a long time, no one paid much attention to Arnold Allen - he just humbly and unobtrusively defeated every opponent. But after nine wins in a row in the UFC, it became impossible to ignore him, and Allen got into a fight with Calvin Kattar and won (opponent's injury). His peak moment came on April 15th of last year, when the whole fighting world froze: what is he worth? It turned out to be a lot. In the bout with former champion Max Holloway, he looked quite decent, fought almost on equal terms all five rounds, but still failed to win - too slow and tactically weak. Still, the Brit is worthy of respect - the fight with Evloyev is very risky, a loss is quite likely, and a win will not be a great achievement.

Allen is a tough fighter, but his main problem is that he doesn't have a dominant skill in his arsenal. In other words, he can do everything at a fairly high level but nothing better than anyone else. Yevloev can defend himself on the feet and destroy his opponent on the floor, both at the beginning and at the end of the fight. The simplified scenario will look like this: Arnold will try to avoid the wrestle at any cost. The Russian should be extremely careful in the standing, coming closer when necessary, to prevent a precise shot in vulnerable places. So there won't be much blood and flames in this confrontation. Allen will defend, looking for Yevloev's mistake, and Movsar will do his best to avoid it. In the clinch and the parterre, however much it will be, the Russian will solve all the questions and most likely win by a referee's decision.