Chris Curtis Makes Noise For UFC’s Newcomer Of The Year

After Khamzat Chimaev’s noisy debut in 2020, it was hard for fighters to make an impression. But some fighters still made it.

One of them was Chris Curtis.

He signed in the UFC this year at 34 years old, but has lots of experience under his belt. His professional record before UFC was 26 victories with eight losses.

Despite his losses, he is currently on a seven-fight winning streak. Regardless, he held six battles in 2021 and earned victories in all of them.

He made his UFC debut on November 6 against experienced opponent Phil Hawes at UFC 268.

By that time, Hawes was 3-0 in the UFC. Curtis took this fight on short notice, but he held an amazing performance.

Hawes was considered the favorite with odds -310, but Curtis served him his first-ever loss in the UFC. In a first-round, he earned a knockout victory just 30 seconds before the first-round bell.

Curtis’ second bout was against Brendan Allen.

Allen was supposed to fight with Brad Tavares, but Tavares withdrew from the battle. However, Georgian fighter Roman Dolidze replaced him, but Dolidze suffered Covid-19 issues, and he was forced out.

Curtis was the one who managed and welcomed Allen inside the octagon.

Allen was a moderate favorite with the odds -365. He had five victories and only one loss. This loss was against Curtis’ teammate, Sean Strickland.

Strickland was the cornerman of Curtis during the fight with Allen.

Curtis did a great job avoiding takedowns and fighting in the standing. In the second round, Curtis landed several bombs, and his opponent could not protect himself. After landing several knees and punches, referee Herb Dean stopped the fight at 1:58 of the second round.

Curtis is not yet inside the top 15 of the UFC’s middleweight rankings.