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Events · UFC Fight Night: Allen vs Costa · Arnold Allen vs Melquizael Costa
Red corner ArnoldAllen“Almighty”Felixstowe, Suffolk
VSSettled
Blue corner MelquizaelCosta“Melk Cauthy”Chute Boxe Joao Emilio · Porto de Moz, Para
Featherweight5 rounds16 May 2026
The story going in
  • Has finished 4 of 11 UFC wins.
  • Comes in on a 6-fight win streak.
  • 14 UFC bouts deep — 5 more than Costa.
  • Has finished 4 of 7 UFC wins.
21-4
Record
26-8
32
Age
−3 yr29
5' 8"
Height
+2″5' 10"
70″
Reach
+1″71″
Southpaw
Stance
Southpaw
+514
UFC bouts
9
4/1136% of wins
Finishes
+21%4/757% of wins
Felixstowe, Suffolk
From
Porto de Moz, Para
Vitals, record, nickname and camp come from the public UFC fighter register and are current, not a snapshot of fight night. UFC bouts, finish rate and every storyline line are counted off the official UFC fight record. A tick marks the side holding the raw edge in that row — longer reach, taller, younger, more bouts, a higher finish rate. It is a fact about the tape, not a prediction, and rows with no clean comparison (record, stance, gym, hometown) carry no tick at all. Any row we cannot fill on both sides is left out rather than half-drawn. Streaks, bout counts and finish rates are as they stood going into this fight — this bout and everything after it is excluded from the count.

The call vs the fight

What we published before the card, next to what happened in the cage.

Our call
Melquizael Costa
54.9% confidentTOSS-UP
Method calledDEC 59%
Vs the market+8.4pp
Market had our pick at47%
The fight
Arnold Allen
LOSS
How it endedDEC
Round5 of 5
Clock5:00
Missed We called Melquizael Costa at 54.9%Arnold Allen won. We had the method right and the man wrong.
Graded against the official UFC result, from the same record every other page on this site is graded from. The tick beside the verdict is the method call — a correct winner with a wrong method is a partial hit and reads as one. See the full public record →

Round by round

Every round the fight went, shaded by where the significant strikes actually landed — the takedowns, control time and knockdowns beside them, and how the three judges scored that round.

UFCStats · per round

5 rounds of tape

Round 15:00 of action⚡ 1 KD Allen
Arnold Allen9 sig landed
HEAD89%8 of 8BODY0%0 landedLEGS11%1 of 1
Melquizael Costa10 sig landed
HEAD50%5 of 8BODY30%3 of 3LEGS20%2 of 3
9 of 9
Sig.
strikes
10 of 14
2 of 2
Take-
downs
0 of 2
1:44
Control
1:45
1
Knock-
downs
0
Distance 4Clinch 0Ground 5
Where it
happened
Distance 7Clinch 0Ground 3
Judges · this round · Allen firstEric Colón10–9Sal D'Amato10–9David Lethaby10–9
Round 25:00 of action
Arnold Allen23 sig landed
HEAD70%16 of 31BODY9%2 of 2LEGS22%5 of 5
Melquizael Costa26 sig landed
HEAD31%8 of 49BODY19%5 of 14LEGS50%13 of 15
23 of 38
Sig.
strikes
26 of 78
0 of 0
Take-
downs
0 of 0
0:36
Control
0:00
0
Knock-
downs
0
Distance 23Clinch 0Ground 0
Where it
happened
Distance 26Clinch 0Ground 0
Judges · this round · Allen firstEric Colón10–9Sal D'Amato9–10David Lethaby10–9
Round 35:00 of action
Arnold Allen32 sig landed
HEAD84%27 of 47BODY6%2 of 2LEGS9%3 of 3
Melquizael Costa30 sig landed
HEAD47%14 of 49BODY23%7 of 13LEGS30%9 of 9
32 of 52
Sig.
strikes
30 of 71
0 of 0
Take-
downs
0 of 1
1:22
Control
0:00
0
Knock-
downs
0
Distance 25Clinch 0Ground 7
Where it
happened
Distance 30Clinch 0Ground 0
Judges · this round · Allen firstEric Colón10–9Sal D'Amato10–9David Lethaby10–9
Round 45:00 of action
Arnold Allen23 sig landed
HEAD87%20 of 33BODY4%1 of 1LEGS9%2 of 2
Melquizael Costa23 sig landed
HEAD43%10 of 41BODY17%4 of 11LEGS39%9 of 11
23 of 36
Sig.
strikes
23 of 63
1 of 1
Take-
downs
0 of 0
1:43
Control
0:00
0
Knock-
downs
0
Distance 23Clinch 0Ground 0
Where it
happened
Distance 23Clinch 0Ground 0
Judges · this round · Allen firstEric Colón10–9Sal D'Amato10–9David Lethaby10–9
Round 55:00 of actionEnded 5:00
Arnold Allen11 sig landed
HEAD91%10 of 15BODY9%1 of 2LEGS0%0 landed
Melquizael Costa11 sig landed
HEAD91%10 of 26BODY9%1 of 1LEGS0%0 of 1
11 of 17
Sig.
strikes
11 of 28
4 of 4
Take-
downs
0 of 1
4:03
Control
0:00
0
Knock-
downs
0
Distance 4Clinch 0Ground 7
Where it
happened
Distance 11Clinch 0Ground 0
Judges · this round · Allen firstEric Colón10–9Sal D'Amato10–9David Lethaby10–9

Significant strikes, takedowns, control time, knockdowns and submission attempts exactly as UFCStats recorded them for this bout, round by round. Zone percentages are that round’s landed head, body and leg counts over their own total — raw arithmetic, nothing modelled or smoothed. A round in which a fighter landed nothing shades empty and reads zero; it is never filled in from the round before.

The cards, totalled

The judges’ final totals, the media’s cards beside them, and how these judges usually score. Their round-by-round 10–9s are with the rounds above.

Official card

Unanimous Decision

Referee · Chris Tognoni
Arnold AllenMelquizael Costa
Official totals — Arnold Allen first
JudgeTotal
Eric Colón2.0 avg spread · 43% wide50–45
Sal D'Amato2.1 avg spread · 46% wide49–46
David Lethaby2.1 avg spread · 44% wide50–45

Each judge’s round-by-round scores sit with the round they belong to, in the round-by-round section above — switch a round there and the three cards for it change with the stats.

Media cards — 9 scored, Arnold Allen first · unofficial

Ryan Frederick WrestlingObserver.com50–45
Keith Shillan Sherdog.com50–45
Dayne Fox Sherdog.com50–45
Zane Simon The MMA Vivisection50–45
Danny Segura MMAJunkie.com50–45
Combat Press.com50–45
Jake Noecker Home of Fight49–46
Tristen Critchfield Sherdog.com49–46
Allen Tyler Treese Sherdog.com49–46

Fan vote · unofficial

50-45 Allen · 69%49-46 Allen · 22%48-47 Allen · 4%49-45 Allen · 3%50-43 Allen · 1%

77 fan cards submitted to MMA Decisions.

Official cards come from the UFCStats fight record and MMA Decisions. Media cards and the fan vote are MMA Decisions’ own collection and are not official. Judge tendency figures are that judge’s whole recorded history, not this bout — they are context for how a card was scored, never a claim that it was scored wrongly.

Takedowns

Takedowns

The level change — head to head

Career UFC takedown rates. Red corner left, blue corner right.

Arnold Allen

1.24takedowns / 15 min
1.24 / 15m
TAKEDOWNS
1.53 / 15m
2.07 / 15m
ATTEMPTS
4.37 / 15m
60%
ACCURACY
35%
0.30 / 15m
SUB ATT
0.80 / 15m

Melquizael Costa

1.53takedowns / 15 min

Career UFC takedown rates exactly as UFCStats publishes them: takedowns landed per 15 minutes, completion rate, submission attempts per 15 minutes, and the share of takedowns tried on them that they stuffed. Attempts per 15 is the one derived figure — landed ÷ completion rate — and it is omitted wherever either input is missing. UFCStats writes 0% where no attempt was recorded at all, so a percentage of exactly zero reads “n/a” here rather than as a measured rate. “Field” is the average fighter in that weight class, or across every division where a class is too small to average. Rate bars run to the population’s 95th percentile (5.73 takedowns / 15m); a fighter above it pins the bar. Percentages are drawn on their own axis.

Ranked in Featherweight

The market story

What the market did on the way to the cage — the price, not our model. The gold marker is where our pick was frozen.

Arnold AllenMelquizael CostaPolymarketSportsbook consensus (vig removed)
Arnold Allen vs Melquizael Costa — implied win chance over timeLine chart. Market-implied win chance for Arnold Allen and Melquizael Costa from May 02 to May 16, drawn from Polymarket and the sportsbook consensus. Arnold Allen moves from 42% to 52% and Melquizael Costa from 58% to 48%. A gold marker sits at the first snapshot in this window — our pick was frozen before the window opened, not at that price.30%40%50%60%70%May 2May 6May 9May 13May 16▲ we passed here (toss-up)52%48%

Melquizael Costa's implied chance drifted down from 58% to 48% (−10.5pp) over this window. Our pick was frozen at the model cutoff, before this window opened — so the gold marker sits at the first snapshot we hold, not at a price we were reacting to.

Our published call had Melquizael Costa at 54.9%. At the last price we captured before the fight, the de-vigged market had him at 47.5% — our number sat 7.4pp above the market’s. Two numbers, side by side. How our calls have actually done is the public record, not one bout.

Show the numbers
SeriesOpenLowHighLast captureMove
Arnold Allen — sportsbook consensus59.1%41.6%62.0%53.4%−5.7pp
Melquizael Costa — sportsbook consensus40.9%38.0%58.4%46.6%+5.7pp
Arnold Allen — Polymarket42.0%42.0%63.5%52.5%+10.5pp
Melquizael Costa — Polymarket58.0%36.5%58.0%47.5%−10.5pp
Price history from Polymarket (moneyline, both corners) and BestFightOdds (sportsbook consensus, vig removed). 3,604 snapshots on file · window May 02 18:46May 16 23:57Z · last capture May 16, 23:57Z · hourly-downsampled for the chart · read at build time from the price archive, not a live feed.
← Back to the public record