Arnold Allen vs Melquizael Costa to Headline Ultimate Fighting Championship Vegas 117

The featherweight bout will take place on May 16 in Las Vegas.

Arnold Allen and Melquizael Costa will face each other in the main event of UFC Vegas 117, scheduled for May 16 at the UFC Performance Institute in Las Vegas. The bout between the two will be contested in the featherweight division.

Allen enters the fight with a professional record of 20 wins and 4 losses. The British fighter is coming off a defeat to Jean Silva at the end of January this year, which marked his third loss in his last four fights. Before that, he began his UFC career in impressive fashion with a streak of 10 consecutive victories and for a long time was considered a strong contender for the title.

However, Allen later suffered losses to Max Holloway, Movsar Evloev, and Jean Silva, which pushed him away from the top of the division. Interestingly, despite his four defeats, he has never been finished in MMA, while 11 of his wins have come before the final bell.

Melquizael Costa enters the fight in excellent form with a record of 26–7 and a six-fight winning streak. In his most recent bout, held at the end of last month, the Brazilian defeated Dan Ige.

Costa has finished 17 of his victories before the judges’ decision, while four of his losses came by stoppage. He started his UFC run inconsistently with a 1–2 record but later found his rhythm and went on to secure six straight wins, four of them by knockout or submission.