5 reasons to watch UFC Fight Night: Alexander Volkov vs. Tom Aspinall

#4. Gunnar Nelson is back in the UFC for the first time since 2019

Gunnar Nelson returns to the octagon for the first time since 2019 this weekend

If you rewind almost a decade, there were few hotter prospects in the UFC’s welterweight division than Gunnar Nelson. The native of Iceland blended a genuinely world-class grappling game with an unorthodox striking attack and looked almost guaranteed to become a future title contender.

Unfortunately for ‘Gunni’, that didn’t really pan out. Losses to Rick Story and Demian Maia took the shine off him as a prospect, and while he rebounded from them well, between 2017 and 2019 he lost three bouts out of four.

Nelson now hasn’t competed since his loss to Gilbert Burns in September 2019, but this weekend sees him finally return to the octagon, facing late replacement Takashi Sato.

Quite how much Nelson has to offer now is a bit of a mystery, but at the age of 33, he should still be in his athletic prime, and he’s never really taken that much damage over the years, either.

That means that given the lack of prospective opponents for current welterweight kingpin Kamaru Usman, there’s a chance that with a couple of wins, ‘Gunni’ could get back into contention.

Of course, to do that he’ll have to get past Sato this weekend, and while the fight seems stylistically good for the Icelandic fighter, it should still be a decent barometer as to where he stands – making it a must-see fight overall.

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#3. Arnold Allen might be one of the UFC’s most underrated fighters

Arnold Allen is a brilliant fighter, but he remains unheralded right now

There are a number of underrated fighters currently operating in the UFC, and featherweight contender Arnold Allen is almost certainly near the top of that list.

‘Almighty’ is currently ranked at #7 in the division and holds a massively impressive octagon record of 8-0, but for most casual fans, the English native may as well not even exist. Indeed, he’s only appeared on the main card of an event on two occasions before.

This weekend, though, marks his first real push into the spotlight. Not only is he positioned in the show’s co-headliner, but he’s also facing Dan Hooker, a fighter who has headlined more than one UFC show in his time with the promotion.

This fight is undoubtedly a tricky one to call; Allen is the more proven fighter at 145lbs thanks to his wins over Sodiq Yusuff and Gilbert Melendez, but Hooker has more experience and holds wins over the likes of Paul Felder and Al Iaquinta.

Whether he wins or loses, though, the technical skill and expert poise of Allen should make this a very watchable fight, and hopefully, when all is said and done, he won’t be such an unknown any more. Regardless, his high ranking makes this clash a fight to keep an eye on.