Arnold Allen snaps win streak of Melquizael Costa at UFC Fight Night

Arnold Allen will hold onto his spot in the featherweight rankings after snapping the win streak of rising contender Melquizael Costa.

England’s Allen won a five-round unanimous decision over Brazil’s Costa in a UFC Fight Night main event Saturday at the Meta Apex in Las Vegas.

Allen often prepares for his matchups with training camps in Canada at Montreal’s Tristar Gym but the Ipswich, England native prepared for Costa in his home country and it paid off.

The 32-year-old had lost decisions in three of his previous four appearances, while Brazil’s Costa had won six in a row in the UFC and had stopped his two most recent opponents in the opening round.

Allen out-landed Costa 156 to 118 in total strikes and effectively mixed up his attack by going seven for seven on takedowns and accumulating 9:28 of cage control time.

Two judges gave Allen all five rounds and the other scored it four rounds to one for Allen who entered the weekend as the No. 7-ranked contender in the 145-pound division.

Allen told Sportsnet’s Aaron Bronsteter earlier in the week he hopes to stay busy in 2026 once he gets by Costa.

“That’s the plan,” he said. “Busy busy. Get back in that title contention, take some people out. Take names, call for titles. That’s the plan.”

In other featherweight action, Dooho Choi stopped Daniel Santos with body shots in the co-main event. Choi is now unbeaten in his past four fights. This was Choi’s first appearance since December of 2024. Santos had been on a four-fight streak prior to the loss. The pair were originally supposed to meet in September but the bout was postponed after Choi sustained a knee injury.

Peru’s Juan Diaz upset Malcolm Wellmaker with a second-round rear-naked choke submission. Diaz improved to 16-1-1 and was making his UFC debut. He was coming off a spectacular spinning elbow knockout on Dana White’s Contender Series in October that earned him a UFC contract.

Khaos Williams earned a first-round technical knockout win over fellow welterweight Nikolay Veretennikov.

Croatia’s Ivan Erslan picked up his first UFC win after starting 0-3 in the organization thanks to a unanimous decision over England’s Tuco Tokkos.

Brazil’s Nicolle Caliari began her UFC tenure 0-2 after losing two tough matchups as an undersized flyweight, but earned her first UFC win after dropping down to the strawweight division. Caliari submitted Shauna Bannon in the third round of their 115-pound contest. Ireland’s Bannon has been tapped out in each of her past two outings.

Alice Ardelean tapped out Polyana Viana with a unique submission in the second round of their strawweight bout. Romania’s Ardelean became the first fighter in UFC history to win a fight with a move called a “Capsule lock” as she used leverage 

Colorado’s Luis Gurule lit up Spain’s Daniel Barez with 149 significant strikes and snapped his three-fight losing streak, winning a spirited flyweight bout via unanimous decision.

Tommy Gant improved to 12-0 as a pro by handing Artur Minev his first loss. Gant was originally scheduled to face Trey Ogden who withdrew earlier in the week with an injury.