The pending battle between Brendan Allen and Paul Craig promises to intensify the conflict in the Ultimate Fighting Championship’s middleweight division. Scheduled to headline UFC Fight Night 232 in the UFC Apex, Las Vegas, the contest marks an anticipated land grab. Meanwhile, in the same event’s three-round co-main match, top welterweight contender Michael Morales stakes his perfect 15-0 record against Jake Matthews at 170 pounds.
As UFC Fight Night “Allen vs. Craig” nears, statistics illuminate the competencies of the fighters. To date, only eight men besides Allen have held the Middleweight Crown of the Legacy Fighting Alliance. In contrast, Craig’s 13 victories by submission account for 76% of his total career wins. He prefers eight triangle chokes, two armbars, one guillotine choke, one brabo choke, and one rear-naked choke. Interestingly, Matthews has fought in five different countries, with the majority of his wins, 13 out of 19, coming from his native Australia. Morales, the youngest fighter on the card, is only 23 but already boasts a substantial career.
The event also features Chase Hooper, notable for landing 149 significant strikes in UFC Fight Night 223’s unanimous decision over Nick Fiore. He is set to take on Jordan Leavitt in a three-round lightweight showcase. Leavitt himself has cashed in $100,000 in post-fight bonuses in his six UFC appearances. Additionally, unbeaten Payton Talbott, who has fought in three different organisations, will confront Nick Aguirre in a three-round bantamweight event. The figures reveal that Aguirre trains an impressive 1,740 miles away from UFC headquarters at the VFS Academy, Bensenville, Illinois.
The list of notable players continues with Luana Pinheiro, who hasn’t experienced a setback for 2,435 days and rides a nine-win streak into her three-round women’s strawweight feature, opposite Amanda Ribas. Ribas, a former Jungle Fight champion, has completed 31 rounds as a professional mixed martial artist and carries a 5-1 record in bouts that have gone the distance. Yet another knockout player, Uros Medic, with seven victories by knockout or technical knockout, confronts Myktybek Orolbai, who committed his fastest finish to date in just 64 seconds. Chad Anheliger, the oldest fighter on the card at 36 years old, will face Jose Johnson in a three-round bantamweight prelim. The cumulative winning percentage between the 28 fighters in the event is an impressive .780, with a combined record of 336-93-5. Other fighters to watch include Denis Tiuliulin, Lucie Pudilova, who will both take part in undercard duty. They will meet Christian Leroy Duncan and Ailin Perez, respectively.