MMA Fighting - What the Heck: UFC Vegas 23 Bonus Edition | Arnold Allen & William Knight

Episode Date: April 9, 2021

In a special bonus edition of What the Heck, MMA Fighting's Mike Heck speaks with Arnold Allen (4:47) ahead of his co-main event matchup with Sodiq Yusuff and William Knight (14:34) to preview his light heavyweight showdown with Da Un Jung this Saturday at UFC Vegas 23. Follow Mike Heck: @MikeHeck_JR Subscribe: http://goo.gl/dYpsgH Check out our full video catalog: http://goo.gl/u8VvLi Visit our playlists: http://goo.gl/eFhsvM Like MMAF on Facebook: http://goo.gl/uhdg7Z Follow on Twitter: http://goo.gl/nOATUI Read More: http://www.mmafighting.com Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

You're listening to the Vox Media Podcast Network. This is What the Heck with Mike Heck on MMAfighting.com. Now here is your host, Mike Heck. What the heck? Hey, everybody, and welcome to a special bonus edition of What the Heck here on the MMA Fighting Podcasting Network. I am Mike Heck, bringing you a couple of extra bonus interviews in case you missed them on the YouTube channel ahead of Saturday's UFC Vegas

23 event in Las Vegas, the second event for the UFC where the main card will air on ABC Network. This is a very big deal, very cool. Of course, ABC has a long lineage, a long history in the combat sports world, the main event going down on Saturday at the middleweight division. Marvin Vittori takes on Kevin Holland, who is stepping in for Darren Till on pretty short notice. But if you really look at this card from top to bottom, it's really good. It's a really good card. main event is phenomenal between Arnold Allen and Sudec Yusuf, 14 fights total, and it's an early one.

Some daytime MMA for your Saturday. On the East Coast, the first fight of the day in the Walter weight division between Impa Kasang and I and Sasha Palatnikov. That's going down at 11.30 a.m. Eastern time, which means

we'll have our pre-fight show on our YouTube channel at 11 a.m. Eastern. So it's going to be an early one. Get excited. We might actually have a night to do other things besides fight stuff. How about that? But it's a really good card. Top to bottom, 14 fights, a lot of interesting storylines, a lot of interesting stakes in a lot of these fights. The main card is really, really good, really deep. And I'm looking forward to this one. And that's what this bonus episode is all about. I had a chance to catch up with a couple

of the fighters who are competing on Saturday. They joined me from Las Vegas. So let's run down the lineup, we'll get to those interviews, and hope you guys enjoy a little extra bonus coverage. Joining us later on, William Knight, and the road to not just William Knight, but my other guest, to getting to their next UFC appearance, has been a little bit of a bumpy one, shall we say. William Knight especially, of course, he earned a contract on Dana White's Contender Series in September, turned around quick. A little over three weeks later at UFC 253, fought Alexa Kameh.

Hamer got the victory. So he had two wins in 25 days. And getting to a second UFC fight, the road to it, not an easy one. He was supposed to fight Alonzo Menafield. In February, Alonzo Menafield ended up tested positive for COVID-19. So they pushed the fight back a month to UFC 260 in March. This time, William Knight tested positive for COVID-19. So the UFC was forced to make a couple of changes.

Knight got pushed back to this Saturday to fight Daun Jung, while Alonzo Mennefield submitted Fabio Chiront in the first round at UFC 260. William Knight really wants that fight with Alonzo Menefield. He has to get through Daunzung. But you know what? He says win or lose? He's going to go after that fight anyway. So really interesting stuff from William Knight.

You'll hear that a little bit later on. And then joining us right now, and I am so excited for this fight, between Bellator and the UFC, the featherweight division, at least for what fights are going to be going down in very important spots for these cards. I think they're the best fights in the cards. Bellator has Adam Borch versus Jeremy Kennedy. The co-main event for Saturday's UFC event is Sudec Yusuf taking on my guest at this time, Arnold Allen. And man, what a fight that is.

Again, another individual who has been on a great streak. We haven't seen him fight since January of last year. He was booked against Jeremy Stevens in November. Stevens got injured. And rather than just take another unranked opponent just to get a fight, Arnold Allen decided to stay patient. And he's got himself a matchup with a fellow surging contender, a fellow top 15 fighter at 145 pounds. And Arnold Allen is hoping to get closer and closer to Alexander Volcanovsky in terms of, you know, one in the rankings for an opportunity to fight for the title sooner rather than later.

And two, right now Arnold Allen has the second longest winning streak in the UFC's featherweight division. He's got nine wins overall in a row, but he's got he's 7 at 0 in the UFC. only Volkanowski has a longer current active winning streak in the UFC. So big fight, Arnold Allen versus SOTEG Youssev. Let us talk to Arnold Allen right now. Have a heck of a weekend, everybody. Enjoy all the fights and enjoy the interviews. Here's Arnold Allen.

All right, big fight coming up this weekend for the number 10 ranked featherweight in the world. First fight in 15 months for this man as he takes on Sadiq Yusef in the co-main event on ABC at UFC Vegas 23. Happy to have Arnold Allen. joining us right now. Arnold, how are you, man? Yeah, I'm doing great, man. Thanks for having me on. Absolutely. It is Fight Week, and we haven't been able to say that those words in quite some time, man. How excited you to actually hear those words for the first time since January of last year? Oh, man, yeah, I can't wait. It's been a long time, too long, too long.

For you, like, at this point, like, it wasn't just about getting a fight. It was about getting the right fight, like a fight that you'd earned because you're supposed to fight Josh Emmett last year who at the time was probably in the top 10. You took the fight with Nick Lentz. You got the wins. You did the favors there. Then you get Jeremy Stevens in November. He gets injured.

The fight is off. And now you're in a position where, yeah, you could go and fight another unranked guy on super short notice. But there's nothing really to gain from that. So was it difficult for you to stay patient and wait for an opportunity like you have this Saturday? Or is this something that you were ready for all along and it was going to take as long as it took? Yeah, exactly that.

It was pretty difficult. you know, staying patient and not fine because I haven't been the most active in my UFC career. Everyone knows that. But, you know, I feel ready now to get active and get myself, I want to prove myself amongst these sort of elite guys, you know.

And like you said, I'm seven and I know on the UFC and I want that sort of fight to stand out and get amongst the elite guys, you know. I want to prove I deserve to be there. And I feel like this is the kind of fight to do that. Yeah, I feel like over these years, even though you haven't been that active, I feel like your cup of excitement, at least amongst fans, has been slowly filling up and it's starting to get really close to overflowing.

But then like the inactivity happens. Like, are you starting to feel that as well that people are starting to jump on board even though it's been kind of a slow process? Yeah, exactly, exactly. But it's kind of been a blessing in a way, you know, like I've been able to make big improvements and I'm ready for the next sort of step. I never got ahead of myself, which is it's a blessing in some ways. So yeah, it's good in that sense. this is a pretty big deal fighting on ABC because I mean Muhammad Ali

found an ABC a million times Mike Tyson George Foreman Sugar Ray Roberta Duran Tommy Hurons Like the list goes on and on Now you're in a big one co-made event on ABC for the UFC Is this something that you're excited

To be a part of as a fighter Yeah like well so back home in England We don't have ABC So I didn't know about it But yeah it's really cool Like you just reeled off those names A big legend so anything they're involved with.

It's pretty cool to be involved with the same thing. So yeah, definitely. Definitely. It's very cool. Yeah. So you got to Vegas last night or today? Sunday. Yeah, Sunday.

So did I see that your dad got mistaken for Dana White? Because from someone like myself who people say is like, you know, this is Dana's cousin or a little brother or older son I get all the time. It's nice to see that I'm not in an island with this one. What happened there? Yeah. We just coming out of the gym, we did a little workout, and this lady's stuck my dad. She's like, oh, are you Dana White? I'm tired.

I mean, he loves it. He's loving it. He said he wants to get some outfits like Dana, and he wants to drive around dressed like Dana. That's easy, man. Just got to get, like, non-collared shirts with, like, two buttons. You know, a couple of Red Sox shirts, a couple of Patriots T-shirts. He's good to go.

And it's done. Is this something that happens all the time to him? I've never heard that before. That was the first one? That's it, yeah, the first time. It cracked me up. He should have played. Did he try to play it off?

And they just didn't believe him once he started talking about. He was like, no, no, I'm not. But yeah, you said he wish he did. You should have gone for it. Well, now he's got something to look forward to in the future. So now you get Sidhi Guestaf. He's won six in a row. In my opinion, he was part of the best fight in the history of the contender series

with Mike Davis. And in terms of rankings, like yourself, this is the biggest fight of his career. how do you like this one sort of from an X as a nose stylistic perspective? Yeah. Yeah, it suits me very well. You know, I think the style

suits me pretty good. And like, I know you've seen my fights. Like I thought guys that kind of come in to wrestle and cry, like put me on the fence, slow me down, take me down. So I've had to kind of have a more of a counter-striking, more of a, you know, counter-restling style, you know, for the whole seven of my UFC fights.

So this is going to sort of, he doesn't really shoot takedowns. He's not going to try and take me down or grind me out. So, yeah, it's going to let me show more of my skills and a different side of my skill set, which is going to be pretty cool. Yeah, a lot of times for you, it's been, like, defense leads to offense. This time it can be like offense meets offense.

You know, you get to be a little more aggressive in there. Exactly, exactly. We're like, obviously coming from the UK and without getting wrestled and it's becoming a bit of a stereotype. So I had to sort of make sure I didn't get taken down over and over and over. So, yeah. In Sudeek's last fight with Andre Feeley, he was sort of tested down the stretch. There were a lot of people out in like social media land that thought Feeley actually won that fight.

And I was not one of those people. But did you watch that fight? And if so, did you think the judges got it right? Yeah, I gave him the first two. Obviously, definitely the second. And then the first, I think he did enough. Were you able to, yeah, it was a fun fight, especially just kind of seeing Andre come back, because like he typically does.

Were you able to pick up a lot of things from that fight? Like, do you feel like if you force him to go deeper, you can take over the longer the fight goes? Yeah, but he's a fast-paced guy. I kind of, I don't know. I just kind of start however. You know what I mean? Like, if a guy starts at a high-paced,

I'm prepared to go at a high-paced. So, you know, if they come out slow and want to be methodical, but okay, I'm going to get my time in and that's how we're going to fight. Yeah, I'm pretty comfortable, however. he's very confident that he's going to put you away relatively quickly on Saturday, which is something nobody has been able to do to you in your 17 fight professional career. What are your thoughts on the way that he sees this going and his confidence that he's going to

punch a short clock on Saturday with you? You know, it's not the first person I thought that said he's going to put me away early. So yeah, exactly. It's just that, you know, I thought, I thought guys, they said they're going to put me away in 10 seconds. I thought guys they said they were going to knock me out. So maybe I just don't look that impressive from the outside. I don't know. Well, I mean, that's, this is still a good thing for you right now.

Let him keep thinking of your knock you out in 10 seconds and people in fights. Yeah, I don't care. So how does it play out in your mind? How do you see it going down? Yeah. I think him rushing in, like he said, he's going to come for an early night and, yeah, he's probably going to run into something, you know? He's going to rush in hard and probably come into something hard himself.

So you're planning on giving him that early night And just not the way that he expected it to go Everyone wants to get out early, don't it? Yeah, I mean, you're in Vering Vegas, man You want to enjoy that extra time as much as you can, right? That's it, that's it I mean, the fights are going to get even bigger from here I mean, so where do you think a win over Sadiq

Put you in the grand scheme of things at 1.45? Yeah, obviously, I don't know if it'll be the longest streak in the February 8th division. I think it would be the longest streak, I'm not sure. But yeah, I want to get amongst those top five guys. You know, that's always the goal to get to the top. And with a win here, I don't see why not. You know, I've tried to fight the number seven.

I think it was the number eight guy, number seven and number eight guy. Obviously, they fell through. They both got injured. No fault of their own, obviously. But yeah, I feel like, why not? and then let me just ask you this I don't know if you're going to be paying attention to it or watching it

some some of the fighters are some aren't but next Saturday Ben Ascgren is boxing in a boxing match this whole thing it's kind of gone crazy ever since this fight got announced press conferences are out of control are you going to are you going to watch that? Yeah why not I'll give it a watch I'll watch it I don't expect to see some high-class boxing but yeah I'll watch it who you if i gave you like a hundred dollars that you had to bet on one of these two guys

or i just take the hundred dollars back who would you put it on throw on bed as for it just because just because i wanted to win more than anything you know i want him to win just yeah he's got to do it for m may you know oh so you feel like do you feel like he's kind of carrying that torch so to speak like he's got that weight on his shoulders like he's got to do this for m m m and if he loses you know what happens then he's uh you know what i you know i feel like he can win. He's, he's tough, man. Ben's tough. And he can, uh, I'm sure he's gonna, he's got a game plan. He's probably going to clinch him off and burning down and, yeah,

just outlast him, you know? Just go deep. That's it. That's it. But, uh, I'm not too confident in his hands to be fair. Yeah. I mean, it's all going to be about grit and gritting guts the whole way through. And, you know, let's, let's see if Jake can, can swim in those shark-infested waters. But let's see, but before that happens, you get your own business to take of against Sotom. Big fight. Finally, you get one of these marquee matchups, big spot and a big card on and a lot of eyeballs are going to be upon at Arnold. So thank you for the time, especially on Fight Week.

It means a lot and all the best to you in the fight on Saturday, man. Thanks so, man. Thanks for having me on. All right, back on with us and back in the Octagon. This Saturday is William Knight. It has been quite the road to get to his second Octagon appearance, but he faces Daun at UFC Vegas 23. the nightmare is finally back. How are you, man?

I'm good. I'm good. Just patiently waiting. I mean, this whole road to your second UFC fight, this is like par for the course for your like entire MMA careers. And I like, nothing's ever easy, but you stick with it. And eventually the time will come. That time is the Saturday at the apex. What have these last couple of months been like for you,

losing out on two fights with Alonzo Meadowfield on two different dates? And then getting a new date and a new opponent. this time around. What are the last couple months been like for you, man? A lot of training and dieting, man. Just a lot of training and dieting. Just been in a crazy mindset that started to affect people around me because I was in a mindset of like just training and sacrificing like people around me, like pushing people away, just trying to stay on course regardless of if the fight doesn't happen.

have to fall off because usually after a fight, I tend to try to enjoy myself after, you know, like light training, go out eat, see people talk to a few people, you know, because, you know, I distance myself. But since last year, when I found out I was fighting for February, that's how long it's been and it started to affect me mentally. Well, I'm back on track now. So when you say like you started pushing people away, like, did they eventually? you kind of understand what you were dealing with being a UFC fighter preparing for multiple dates,

etc? Some understood, some didn't. Some, like, misunderstood because they thought, you know, otherwise. But most people understood. But the important people, they misunderstood or didn't understand what was going on. So the rider dies are still there. And it's one of those, like, important lessons you have to kind of learn along the way as you're a fighter. you know sometimes you win everybody wants to be on board sometimes you lose people fall off the wagon

then things sort of randomly happen along the way and you realize like who the true folks are you right yeah i was like i know who my ride to dies are like i know the people that the good the bad and the ugly that'll stick by my side even when i'm wrong they'll sit there and say i'm right and then tell me that i'm wrong later they don't let me those are the people like yeah i think to really sit there. They'll never make you look away in front of others. But behind closed doors, they'll let you know your truth so you can fix it.

Yeah, I think everybody needs people like that. What exactly happened that led to the scratch from UFC 260? Are you able to talk about that? Yeah, I can talk about it. So in February, Alonzo Menafield got COVID, and then I got COVID. And I was like, I don't know how I got COVID. but I feel nice.

But other than feeling weak, because I thought it was because of the weight cut, that was it. It didn't affect me otherwise. So they said I had it. I went there Tuesday. They tested me Wednesday morning. I'm going to the scale. And they told me that I had it.

And then the fight got scratched, at least for me. But they had a backup for him. Who was also a New Englander and Fabio Chirot. Did you end up watching that fight? Yeah. I was like, the fight went how my coach said it was going to go if it was me. He was like, as soon as the fight starts, he's going to throw. And everything we drilled and trained, it was right there before my eyes.

That fight would have ended early. I'm telling you this right now. I don't care what he thinks or what he says, but that fight would have ended early, lights out. So when you watch that all happen, you were just like, where you just like, damn it, like, I knew this is coming. Like, I seen it all happen. The angles, the way he threw the punches, the setups that we had, the whole nine, like everything was right there.

Like, just to see it happen, I was like in the living room replicating what was going down. And as it was throwing out, I was showing people what was about to happen. I'm like, yo, we've been drilling this so much that it just comes accustomed now. And it happened. I watched it happen. I was like, yo. Nightster Damas over here. They were probably like, oh, man, watching you mimic all those movements.

And there we are. And it's kind of sucks because, like, I know how much, like, when this fight was first announced between you and Alonzo, like, everybody was fired up for it. That was perfect matchmaking. And now, you know, you have a new opponent, happens to be Daun Jung, who he's been on a tear. I know there's some New England familiarity with him since he fought Mike Rodriguez already. I'm sure the date was far more important than the opponent. Is that accurate? Yeah, I mean, to an extent, like, opponents don't matter to me.

As long as the UFC can get me, keep me active, like, I'm just one of how many people on the roster, so I'm grateful regardless of what they got. I'm not really wanting to be picky or complain. The physicality of me and Alonza Menonfield is why people thought it was going to be a great fight. But on paper, they claim he's done more than, I have, but people don't really look at the local circuit on the people that I fought. Like Howard, he fought, he fought, um, Phil Davis. Like, you guys think about that.

He fought Phil Davis and Bellator. So it's like the people I fought fought also and they fall in high levels. It's just the high levels that you guys aren't familiar with. Like, Phil Davis is no pushover. Like, think about it. So I sit here and I'm like, on paper. people claim he fought better opponents but at the end of the day, who's a better

opponent if you're not comparing yourself to yourself? That's a good way I'm looking at it. I assume, I mean, you're obviously focused on Saturday, but I assume that Alonso fight that's something you want to revisit if it's on Saturday. Of course it's going to happen. No matter what happens Saturday,

that fight is going to happen. I can't. It's going to happen. There's no if answer but. I got ready for that fight twice. And, no, I can't, I can't let that go. That grind, everything I was doing, trust me, I am far more than prepared for this fight. And when I meet up with him.

Yes. And the work you've put in has been absolutely ridiculous. I actually was like shaking my head watching your, what was it called, five rounds of death video that you were doing? Good grief, dude. Like, for those who didn't see that, like, what is the five rounds of death? Because it pretty much mimicked what those words were. Just watching it on video is ridiculous. I mean, it speaks for a self.

I can't even formulate the breakdown on it. It's like you push yourself to exhaustion. And then the death rounds are when you're like, you gave it your all. People don't know I did a workout before that. I just recorded the important part. Like, yo, I just finished busting my ass. I just finished running five miles. I just finished killing myself.

I just finished. I did pad work that day. I did all these things. Now the five rounds of death is right after I just finished doing the class. It's to push yourself beyond. It isn't to be, okay, let me rest real quick and come back to it. I was already exhausted and tired. So that's what that five rounds of death comes from.

I can do it with any circuit. Yeah. It's it's for those who haven't seen it go check this out. It's like there's a barbell and it looks like there's 45s on each side and there's a burpee that's into deadlift. And there's probably a whole bunch of those. And then it's like like presses and then you're doing these sort of like leg single leg mountain climber type movements. And then you run after that. It's like it's just so ridiculous.

And then you're giving motivational speeches on the run. You got to be you got to, you got to think of. it, man. Endurance is a weakness in the sport of combat. A lot of people that are successful, are the ones who are grinding and dig deep, or the ones that have crazy endurance. So, like, that's something I've been working on

from day one, like endurance, endurance, endurance, endurance. Speed will come, powers there, hand-eye coordination, the cage awareness, my wrestling, all that stuff is there. It's just a fact of, if I want to play, around or if I want to get serious.

Here's what was interesting about the booking is if they were going to move your fight back from March 27th because you couldn't go, why couldn't they have pushed it back another week? Then you and Parker Porter could have fought on the same card. And I know that's some one of the things you were hoping for for your second UFC fight anyways, right? Like that would have been a strange way to get there after October, but it would have been there. Like, wouldn't it? Like, why not just push it back one more week, you know?

Yeah. I don't speak on the stuff that's happening behind closed doors. But from my understanding, a lot of the fight cards are filled. Like, if I didn't take this fight, my next fight would have been in June. That's the next card they have that they're setting up. And I don't want to wait that long. So I took it. I'm like, I'll just do April.

There you go. So how do we get this thing done on Saturday? It's been around seven months since we've seen you in there. One of the longest layoffs of your career. How do we reintroduce yourself to the fans here? I'm going to see. Like people question my head movement. They say my chins of.

They say my hands are down. They say I'm cocky with my striking. Then you got another people saying that he doesn't like to strike. He puts himself in dangerous positions. Like they don't know as a mystery. So I'm going to leave it as a mystery. I like it. By the way, it's Tuesday as we record this,

the new Venom Fight kits were revealed to the public earlier today. We got to see the video and a whole bunch of photos. What do you think? This will be your, you fought with the Reebok gear. Now you're getting the Venom gear. What do you think of them? I mean, it looks nice. I got to, when I put it on and check it out,

but other than that, I can't really judge on anything I haven't used yet. I was just getting familiar with the Reebok and now it's gone. So it's like, okay. It looks pretty similar. Like there's some different nuances to it, but it's basically like people are compared it's like the Reebok gear but just like with some fangs on it yeah yeah we'll see when we get it because some of the things look completely

different yeah material might be different everything yeah i'm excited to see like how the difference once once you guys fight on saturday so you have to let me know but uh by the way kit and i don't even know if you're going to watch this but are you going to watch the boxing match next saturday askern and paul do you care about that stuff at all i mean i do watch these things It's entertainment. It's always the takeaway from everything. Like, you never know if I'm, you never know if I'm requested for a boxing match.

You never know. So, yeah, I'm going to watch it. I just feel like Ben better put it in work. That's it. MMA hands are different from boxing hands. Yeah. I mean, people feel like the longer the fight goes, the more it favors Ben.

If he gets close and clenches and starts to wear Jake down, that's his road to victory. But he's been working with, You know, he's, he's not an idiot. Like, he knows what he's doing. He trains with high-level strikers. He's worked with Freddie Roach. I mean, the guy knows what he's doing.

Like, you know, a lot of people are overlooking Ben. They feel like Jake's the better boxer. But are you siding with Ben here? Like, if you had to make a prediction, you had to make a prediction, and it'll probably be Ben. Ben will either win by unanimous decision or finish him in the third. Third round. Getting it done quick?

That'd be awesome. Right, because I've seen this guy fight Jake Paul. and he's like those swings for the clouds he's going to burn himself out. There you go, man. Well, I know you get a lot going on. It's great catching up with you, William, and a big fight coming up on Saturday.

You know you got medical. So hopefully this could pass the time a little bit as you await this kind of painful part of the whole process. But I appreciate the time very much, man. And all the best to you on Saturday. You're listening to the Vox Media Podcast Network.