Daniel Cunningham
UFC Vegas 117 goes down in The Meta Apex in Las Vegas on May 16th and we now know what the main event will be. AG Fight is reporting this evening that surging Brazilian contender Melquizael Costa (26-7) will be taking on top ten featherweight contender Arnold Allen (20-4).
Starting with Costa, this is a huge opportunity for him to break into the top ten. The Brazilian is undefeated at 145 pounds inside the octagon. Both of his losses came at 155 pounds, granted one of those losses was to fellow featherweight contender Steve Garcia.
Costa has won six fights in a row but none of his wins were more impressive than his last one. In his last fight at UFC Houston, Costa knocked out Dan Ige with a spinning back kick near the end of the first round to get himself into the featherweight rankings.
Now that he’s ranked, he’s taking another big step up with the UFC’s 7th ranked contender. Arnold Allen might be 1-3 in his last four fights, but he’s definitely one of the best guys in the world.
His losses came against Max Holloway, Movsar Evloev, and Jean Silva. All three of those fights were competitive as well. His last win came in 2024 when he won a decision over Giga Chikadze.
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