Preview: UFC 304 ‘Edwards vs. Muhammad 2’

Featherweights

#6 FW | Arnold Allen (19-3, 10-2 UFC) vs. #10 FW | Giga Chikadze (15-3, 8-1 UFC)

ODDS: Allen (-250), Chikadze (+205)

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Allen’s in a frustrating spot at the moment, as one of England’s best fighters has spent the last year and change proving he can hang with the best at 145 pounds. However, he doesn’t have a big win or much momentum to show for it. Allen has had a slow rise to a degree that’s rarely seen in the UFC. Signed as a raw 21-year-old back in 2015, Allen only fought about once per year—usually on one of the UFC's jaunts to Europe—and against an extremely slow progression in terms of level of competition. To his credit, “Almighty” looked slightly better each time out, even if it was hard to tell how his game was going to coalesce. A lot of his fights saw him allow his opponents to dictate the terms of engagement, only for Allen to rely on his cardio and physical strength to gut out a win. By the time Allen started becoming truly relevant, it seemed he had settle into a slow-paced approach based on neutralizing opponents from range, which was a bit disappointing from an entertainment standpoint and suggested that he might have to take the long road to the top. It was a nice literal change of pace when his breakthrough win over Dan Hooker saw him quickly blitz “The Hangman” for the knockout. After a win over Calvin Kattar due to injury, Allen has suffered his first two UFC losses to Max Holloway and Movsar Evloev—two of the absolute featherweight elite—in fights where it’s hard to say he did anything wrong. He took each of the two to a tough decision, showed some smart decision making and well-rounded skills and just wasn’t able to make up the difference of Holloway’s top-tier striking and Evloev’s top-tier wrestling. Despite those disappointments, Allen is still just 30 years old and should have the time to rack up some wins and wait until the featherweight title picture churns back in his favor. That path starts now against Chikadze.

Chikadze’s first two years in the UFC, from 2019 to 2021, were an impressive bit of business for someone who wasn’t even guaranteed to stay on the roster. A converted kickboxer, Chikadze’s wins prior to the UFC barely qualified as professional competition, and he got outwrestled and tapped out in his Contender Series tryout a year prior. However, the Georgian was able to upgrade his ground game from outright liability to passable, and as a result, everything clicked into place for a seven-fight winning streak. His distance-focused striking game might not have been the most efficient, but Chikadze’s sense of range and kicking speed were enough to discourage his opposition and eventually score some impressive knockouts. Chikadze’s momentum eventually halted with a one-sided loss at the hands of Kattar to kick off 2022. It’s impressive that he was able to survive five rounds, but Kattar’s durability and willingness to apply pressure—along with some wrestling—proved that while Chikadze is much improved, there are still some clear holes in his game under duress. Since then, it has essentially been a lost two and a half years due to injury, with Chikadze’s lone fight resulting in a decision win over Alex Caceres that saw him fight behind his usual form. This does look like another bad matchup for Chikadze similar to the Kattar fight, as Allen has the same level of impressive durability and ability to bring offense at all angles. Yet there is some intrigue since Allen doesn’t have Kattar’s temperament to just get after it and pressure Chikadze. For most of his career, Allen has been content to feel things out and solve problems, which figures to give Chikadze a lot of time and space to work with his best weapons. Fortunately for Allen, he has shown a much more willing propensity to blitz opponents and pour on offense in bunches in his last few fights, so that’s enough to give him the nod here, as those efforts should be successful. With that said, this could be a trickier fight than it appears on paper. The pick is Allen via decision.

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Edwards vs. Muhammad
Aspinall vs. Blaydes
Green vs. Pimblett
Duncan vs. Rodrigues
Allen vs. Chikadze
The Prelims