Brendan Allen scored one of the biggest wins of his career at UFC Vancouver when he beat Reinier de Ridder in the main event after accepting the fight on short notice.
Following a tough opening round, Allen
reversed de Ridder’s takedowns and began punishing him from the top position with a barrage of punches and elbows. By the end of the fourth round, de Ridder barely pulled himself off the canvas and the fight was ultimately stopped when he couldn’t continue.
While a win is a win, Allen admits he always saw the fight playing out that way, especially after watching de Ridder call it quits in a past fight with Anatoly Malykhin in ONE Championship.
“I said I was going to [break him],” Allen told MMA Fighting. “There’s something somewhere, I don’t know where I saw it, an edit someone made or maybe even my guy made it, I don’t even know. I don’t really remember but it was literally word for word what I said when the UFC came to Chicago during the camp. Literally, word for word, exactly what happened. It doesn’t get much better than that.”
As much as his game plan centered around breaking de Ridder across five rounds, Allen was still surprised at how the fight ended.
Allen actually endured a similar situation during his own career where he was completely exhausted and almost couldn’t pick himself off the canvas at the end of a round. Ultimately, he still continued and ended up being submitted moments later, but Allen just couldn’t fathom not answering the bell when it came time to fight.
“Every man’s got to look in the mirror, right?” Allen said. “Everyone’s got to search their own soul. That one’s on him. He’s got to look himself in the mirror. If he’s all right with it, god bless him. I know for me, I have to answer the bell. I can clearly remember having it was my second ever adrenaline dump when I fought Trevin Giles so long ago. I could barely even stand at the end of the round.
“I gassed, he turned in on me and beat me up in my guard and trying to go for legs and he beat me up. I couldn’t even really stand between rounds but still I walked out and threw like a flying knee or something and he literally just pushed me and I fell over. Didn’t punch me, literally pushed me, not hard and I fell over. We still scrambled a little bit more and he got like a rear-naked [choke] but it wasn’t even on my throat. It was over my mouth and I couldn’t breathe and I panicked and I tapped. I went to breathe and nothing was coming in. I remember afterwards, I was scared in the moment to be honest with you. I never had that happen before.”
That was the third fight of Allen’s career back in 2016 and his attitude hasn’t changed when it comes to pushing forward no matter the consequences. While Allen can’t speak for de Ridder’s mindset in that moment, he knows he couldn’t let a fight end that way.
“I’d rather that, get knocked out something. I’m not going to quit on the stool,” Allens aid. “I can’t quit on my team like that. We work so hard. I think my dad would disown me, too, if I did that to be honest. He’s different. I don’t know, I can’t do that. I don’t want my kids to see that. We follow through no matter what. I signed up to go in there. I signed up to be in that position, to do what I do, to put on a show for the fans, to give a good name to the promotion, to all the guys that gave me the opportunity.
“So I’m not going to let them down by quitting on the stool. Like I said, I’m not scared to get knocked out. I’m not scared to get tapped. I’ve had it both happen. For me personally, that’s all I can speak on and that’s where I stand and I know because I’ve been tested to say that’s what I would do.”
With the win over de Ridder this past Saturday night, Allen has now secured back-to-back victories and he finds himself ranked back in the top 5 at middleweight by the UFC. Allen is excited about what comes next, especially with names like Khamzat Chimaev, Dricus du Plessis, or possibly Sean Strickland getting tossed around as potential opponents.
That said, Allen and his wife are expecting a baby in early 2026 so he’s anxious to get some much needed family time before booking his return to action next year.
“We’re in the top 5 now,” Allen said. “We’re right on track to where we planned. We’ll see what’s next. My wife’s pregnant, going to have the baby January, February. I want to be home for that for sure. I want to kind of try to stay in shape but this week I’m taking off, kind of let my body heal and enjoy my family a little bit. We’ll still go on our trips but I plan to get back into training a little bit, stay a little bit in shape and make some travel before the baby’s born. We’ll see.
“Obviously nothing is off the table depending on what the offer is and the timeline. Depending on what the offer is, me and my wife will sit down and discuss it and see if it makes sense for our family with the baby being born and everything. At this very second, I’m just waiting to see what’s presented but over work, I’m just going to take time to clear my brain for the end of the year with my career wise and just be a father, a husband and enjoy the fruits of my labor.”
