Dan Ige
Wants to fight: [autotag]Chan Sung Jung[/autotag]
The callout: “I’m fighting all these guys and I feel like I’m taking their souls. Maybe I’ve got to fight a guy with no soul. Maybe someone like a zombie – a Korean Zombie. I’d love a fight like that. I think that makes a lot of sense. “Zombie” brings it, I bring it, that’d be a crazy fight. I know he wants (Alexander) Volkanovski, so do I, so let’s fight for it.”
The reality: Following his hard-earned win over Mirsad Bektic in Houston, [autotag]Dan Ige[/autotag] has earned his right to shoot his shot. But jumping all the way up to take on “The Korean Zombie” might be viewed as a slight overreach at this stage, and he might need to beat someone outside the Top 10 before joining the division’s title contenders at 145.
That man might be someone like Arnold Allen. The Brit is undefeated in the UFC and is riding a seven-fight win streak at featherweight. He’s also on a similar timeline to Ige, having only fought a week ago at UFC on ESPN+ 24 in Raleigh. A matchup between Ige and Allen would seem to make sense on paper, and could determine who’s next to springboard into a fight with Top 10 opposition later in the year.
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