ARNOLD ALLEN’S path to becoming the third British champ has been far from conventional.
His early memories are of backflipping off the ropes of a wrestling ring with his brother at the top of the nightclub that his dad worked in when he was age seven.
And to this day the Ipswich-born 28-year-old has stayed true to his beautifully chaotic roots.
The UFC star now trains in his dad, former British strongman, Pacer’s gym tucked away in the back garden of his home in Suffolk.
Most of the equipment is rough and ready, covered in bird droppings and spiderwebs – but Allen believes it has helped shaped him into the fighter he is today.
Allen, who beat Calvin Kattar at UFC Vegas 63 to continue a redhot unbeaten ten-fight streak, said: “My dad used to work in a nightclub.
“At the top of the nightclub he had his gym and there was a professional wrestling ring, WWE style.
“He used to lift weights there and me and my brother would be doing backflips off the rope.
“There’s definitely something to it these unconventional gyms. It comes from my dad.
“And there has to be something said about those shiny, flash gyms where everything’s all tidy.
“Every time I go to lift somewhere like that I feel a bit weaker. When you train and spar somewhere like that you probably give a little bit less you feel comfortable. You don’t try as hard.”
Some of the home-made contraptions in Allen’s back garden gym over the years have included a car deadlift – before it was stolen!
He added: “We used to have a car deadlift in the garden. It was pretty weird.
“I never lifted it because I was only little back then and then I think someone stole it for scrap metal.
“I used to park the car on the platform and then deadlift the car, it was about 400kg.”
Allen won the first round against Kattar in October before the American injured his knee and then collapsed to the ground in the second, prompting the referee to stop the fight.
He is now fourth in the UFC featherweight rankings and is targeting a mouth-watering match up with Max Holloway after bitterly missing out on the interim title fight.
When asked how confident he is of eventually becoming the third British UFC champ after Michael Bisping and Leon Edwards, he replied: “I’m definitely on track.
“I’m young, I’m still fresh and haven’t taken much damage in fights. Training is going well, I’m on a ten-fight win streak so I don’t see why not.
“I am surprised not to have had a shot at the interim title. I won the first round over Kattar and then he got injured unfortunately but I also had a nice win streak before that injury.
“I feel like that was more than anyone else was doing in the division.”
Nothing has come easy to Allen though, who was robbed a year of his young MMA career due to illness.
But he has enjoyed a meteoric rise from teenage prospect to a serious contender for the UFC title, which he credits the people around him for.
He said: “I’ve always been sort of lucky that I’ve been surrounded by good people in the gyms.
“I’ve never gone to a gym and there’s bell***s. I’ve always been surrounded by good coaches, even when I’ve travelled abroad.
“There are some a***holes in this sort of sport and people that want to screw you over.
“But fortunately for me, I’ve always been surrounded by good people. I think that’s the main thing.
“I’ve always just tried to do what I can. Sometimes I’ve had no money, injuries or fought when I was sick.
“I just got on with it. As long as you can put the work in and train. I’ve had points where I’ve had a broken hand but I haven’t missed a session.
“I’ve trained everyday – that probably didn’t help the broken hand!
“You can always improve in one way or the other. If the hands hurt then go running, there’s always something to be done.”
