Brendan Allen keeps winning and he hopes his current upward trajectory leads to a long-awaited shot at revenge against UFC middleweight champion Sean Strickland.
Strickland defeated Allen in November 2020 in a 195-pound catchweight bout, and both have found great success since. Three years later, Strickland scored a shocking upset of Israel Adesanya to capture the 185-pound title, while Allen put together a seven-fight win streak that had him on the cusp of title contention himself.
Allen has frequently
called for a rematch with Strickland, who became two-time champion by defeating Khamzat Chimaev at UFC 328, and he continued that campaign after a thrilling win over Edmen Shahbazyan in Saturday’s UFC Vegas 118 co-main event.
“It’s hard to say, I don’t think I deserve anything,” Allen said. “I try to earn everything I get. I mean, f*ck, I hope Sean goes out here, he’s the champion, so hopefully he picks me. Let’s run this shit back. It’s been six years since we fought, I think I was beating him going into it. If you watch our fight at different angles, you can tell he didn’t hit me with the strike set, it wasn’t there.
“So I think I get him out of there now. I think Edmen’s the better version of him. He’s younger, he’s more technical, he’s faster, so I think Edmen’s a better version of him and I think I get Sean out of there, and ‘And New.’ But you never know.”
Allen has won his past three fights, including an upset of top 10-ranked Reinier de Ridder in the main event of UFC Vancouver this past October. That upset thrust Allen into the thick of the middleweight title mix, along with the likes of Nassourdine Imavov, Caio Borralho, and Chimaev, who may seek an immediate rematch with Strickland.
If a second Strickland fight eludes him again, Allen has some idea of how his 2026 could play out, including potentially fighting the winner of a rumored Dricus du Plessis vs. Kamaru Usman matchup.
“If not, let me and Nassourdine fight,” Allen said. “If Nassourdine wants to sit out and wait, that’s fine, let me fight the winner of Usman and Dricus in October, maybe early November at the worst, so we’ll see. Right now I’m going to go get these injuries checked, I’m going to talk with Hunter and we’ll see what’s next.”
In Allen’s favor is his reputation for putting on exciting fights. He has won three Performance of the Night bonuses and has been one half of the Fight of the Night in two of his past three fights.
While he may not be able to match Strickland’s methodical and highly effective fighting style, he’s confident that his persistence makes him worthy of a title shot.
“[Shahbazyan] had a good game plan, play on the back foot, work the counter game, but like my coach said, if we can’t take him down, we’re going to beat him standing up,” Allen said. “Sometimes you’ve just got to be a dog and walk him, that’s what I did, I walked him down. Walk him down, that’s what I was doing.
“Sean won off of standing on his back foot and throwing a jab, but I’m going to give you some power shots. I’m going to make it dirty. … It was fun, I hope everyone enjoyed it. That’s what I come to do. I come to fight, win or lose, I’m coming to fight. I guess I’m not the most likeable guy, I don’t got the most followers or none of that, but I can f*cking fight. I’m 15-4 in this promotion, I’ve fought the best guys I can fight.”
