TORONTO – [autotag]Movsar Evloev[/autotag] has done nothing but win since he debuted with the UFC in April 2019. But in his nearly five years on the roster, he hasn’t been able to stop an opponent.
The unbeaten featherweight contender hopes to change that on Saturday, however, when Evloev (17-0 MMA, 7-0 UFC) meets Arnold Allen (19-2 MMA, 10-1 UFC) on the UFC 297 main card at Scotiabank Arena. After going to the scorecards in all of his octagon appearances to do date, there would be no bigger and better moment to do something different this time around, and his head coach, Marcos “Parrumpa” DaMatta of American Top Team, admits awareness of the opportunity.
“It’s something on the back of his mind,” DaMatta told MMA Junkie. “It’s not that he doesn’t want to finish. It’s that he’s still developing some kind of his game to actually get to the finish. Nowadays it’s kind of hard to finish someone that actually knows jiu-jitsu, because everyone trains jiu-jitsu now. So there’s other ways to finish with striking, with using striking to go into submissions. We’re trying to put that into his game, so that’s always something that’s on the back of his mind.”
Despite his lack of stoppage results, Evloev has been a largely dominant force inside the cage. He’s completed 34 combined takedowns in his six fights under the UFC banner, and is coming off a Fight of the Night win over Diego Lopes at UFC 288 in May.
Now it’s time for Evloev, No. 8 in the USA TODAY Sports/MMA Junkie featherweight rankings, to fight up against No. 7-ranked Allen. It’s a step up on paper, but DaMatta thinks his student has been ready for this, and will show as much on fight night.
“It’s a fight that he wanted, the type of fight that he wanted for a long time,” DaMatta said. “He’s trying to get ahead in the rankings, fighting people ahead of him. It didn’t play out very well in the past when we were supposed to fight Bryce Mitchell. Unfortunately Bryce got hurt. This is the fight that we need to make Movsar excel and get into the top five and maybe get into title contention conversation. He goes there and finishes Allen, who is an amazing fighter and very durable, very well-rounded. If he finishes Allen, we have another contender. I believe undefeated, being the faithful guy he is with his religion and everything, I think he’s ready to bring him to the next level.”
All the opportunity for Evloev to do something significant at UFC 297 (pay-per-view, ESPNews, ESPN+). The 145-pound title will be on the line in just over one month at UFC 298 in Anaheim, Calif., when Alexander Volkanovski takes on Ilia Topuria.
DaMatta isn’t certain a win for Evloev will get him the next title shot. However, given his history of multiple canceled fights with Topuria (13-0 MMA, 5-0 UFC), and Volkanovski (26-3 MMA, 13-2 UFC) needing fresh contenders if he continues to rule the division, Evloev would be in an advantageous spot if he gets his hand in the right fashion raised this weekend.
“It’s all about finishes,” DaMatta said. “Let’s put a scenario like this: He finishes Allen, then all of a sudden Topuria wins the title. Everyone knows that him and Topuria don’t like each other. Everybody knows there was a couple times they were supposed to fight and it didn’t happen. It could be a title shot right there. Or he needs to fight a couple more times. It’s all about this next couple months. It’s all about Saturday. It’s all about next month Volkanovski and Ilia. What’s Max (Holloway) going to do? So many things that will play out. We just need to finish people.”
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For more on the card, visit MMA Junkie’s event hub for UFC 297.