UFC Fight Night: Allen vs. Costa Preview: Full Fight Card Breakdown
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UFC Fight Night heads to Las Vegas on Saturday with a featherweight main event that puts one of the division's most important rising names against a ranked veteran whose recent form has raised questions. Arnold Allen has been ranked in the top ten long enough to earn his first UFC main event — and this is it. His opponent, Melquizael Costa, has won six straight and finished each of his last three, including a first-round spinning-back-kick TKO of Dan Ige in February 2026 — a stoppage that landed differently given Ige had never been finished before. Whatever happens at the Apex on Saturday, something in the featherweight rankings is about to shift.
Full Fight Card
| Fight | Weight Class | Card Section |
|---|---|---|
| Arnold Allen vs. Melquizael Costa | Featherweight | Main Card |
| Daniel Santos vs. Choi Doo-ho | Featherweight | Main Card |
| Malcolm Wellmaker vs. Juan Díaz | Bantamweight | Main Card |
| Modestas Bukauskas vs. Rodolfo Bellato | Light Heavyweight | Main Card |
| Timothy Cuamba vs. Bernardo Sopaj | Bantamweight | Main Card |
| George Tokkos vs. Ivan Erslan | Light Heavyweight | Preliminary Card |
| Trey Ogden vs. Thomas Gantt | Lightweight | Preliminary Card |
| Ketlen Vieira vs. Jacqueline Cavalcanti | Women's Bantamweight | Preliminary Card |
| Cody Brundage vs. Andre Petroski | Middleweight | Preliminary Card |
| Polyana Viana vs. Alice Ardelean | Women's Strawweight | Preliminary Card |
| Daniel Bárez vs. Luis Gurule | Flyweight | Preliminary Card |
| Shauna Bannon vs. Nicolle Caliari | Women's Strawweight | Preliminary Card |
| Khaos Williams vs. Nikolay Veretennikov | Welterweight | Preliminary Card |
| Jeremiah Wells vs. TBA | Welterweight | Announced |
Nicolas Dalby vs. Jeremiah Wells and Jordan Leavitt vs. Joanderson Brito were cancelled before fight night. Wells remains on the card against a short-notice replacement.
Main Event: Allen vs. Costa
Allen (20-4) is ranked eighth at featherweight and carries the credentials of a long-tenured UFC veteran. His recent run has been difficult. He lost to Jean Silva at UFC 324 in January 2026 — his second consecutive defeat — after more than 18 months out recovering from rotator cuff surgery. His last win was a decision over Giga Chikadze in July 2024, which came between losses to Max Holloway and Movsar Evloev. He is a technically precise southpaw with an active jab and proven grappling, but stepping into his first career main event after consecutive defeats raises real questions about where he is in his career.
Costa (26-7) is ranked 12th and has answered every stylistic question put to him over the last year. He finished Morgan Charrière by head kick in December 2025, then stopped Dan Ige with a spinning back kick in the first round in February 2026. He mixes Muay Thai striking with a genuine submission threat on the ground and generates finishing power from both southpaw crosses and kicks. A win here against the eighth-ranked fighter in the division closes the gap immediately.
Allen's path runs through disruption: establish the jab early, use his wrestling threat to limit Costa's commitment to power shots, and use lateral movement to deny forward pressure. Costa needs to close distance and force exchanges where his combination output and leverage are at their most dangerous. Polymarket prediction markets had Allen around 63% favored heading into fight week — experience and ranking doing most of the work against someone whose last three finishes have been more visually impressive.
Co-Main Event: Choi Doo-ho vs. Daniel Santos
Choi "The Korean Superboy" (16-4-1) is on a two-fight winning streak in the UFC, having beaten Nate Landwehr and Bill Algeo in back-to-back bouts. His aggression and power built his following in an earlier UFC stint and the recent form has validated the return. Santos (9-3) is a Muay Thai specialist from Brazil who won his most recent bout over JooSang Yoo by decision in October 2025 and has beaten two Korean opponents over his UFC run, earning a nickname locally. The fight was originally scheduled for UFC 328 last Saturday and shifted to this card. Both fighters are willing to stand and trade, and the stylistic fit points toward an active three rounds.
Notable Main Card Fights
Modestas Bukauskas vs. Rodolfo Bellato — Light Heavyweight
Bellato knocked out his opponent in the first round at UFC 326 and earned a Performance of the Night bonus doing it. He generates finishing leverage from unconventional angles, and opponents who have not seen him up close tend to get caught. Bukauskas bounces back from a knockout loss to Krylov, carrying the combination of technical boxing and physical toughness that has made him competitive at this level. Both men have demonstrated they can end a fight without warning, and a main card booking with these two rarely ends on the scorecards.
Khaos Williams vs. Nikolay Veretennikov — Welterweight
Williams carries some of the most reliable one-punch knockout power in the welterweight division but enters having dropped two consecutive bouts. Veretennikov is a 6-foot-1 Combat Sambo practitioner who TKO'd Niko Price in 2026 and uses his size, reach, and clinch work to dictate where the fight takes place. Williams needs to find clean striking space. Veretennikov's game plan is to remove it. A fight where the contrast in style is as sharp as it gets.
Prelim Watch
Ketlen Vieira enters ranked fifth at women's bantamweight with wins over ranked opponents including Mayra Bueno Silva. Jacqueline Cavalcanti brings a five-fight UFC winning streak and genuine momentum, but a victory over Vieira would represent a different order of statement than anything she has produced so far. The outcome here has real title-picture implications at 135 pounds.
Thomas Gantt makes his UFC debut after submitting his Contender Series opponent with a guillotine choke in the first round. The NC State All-American wrestler brings legitimate grappling credentials to a lightweight division that punishes debuts quickly when the complete skill set is not there. He faces the experienced Trey Ogden, who knows how to make young fighters uncomfortable.