This weekend (Sat., June 6, 2026) at UFC Vegas 118, No. 4-ranked Middleweight contender will take a significant step down the ladder to face unranked boxer Edmen Shahbazyan in the co-main event.
Usually, there are extenuating circumstances when a Top Five-ranked contender fights outside the rankings. Some kind of losing streak is involved or the unranked athlete is some wunderkind skyrocketing up the ladder. That’s not the case here, however, as Allen is riding an excellent tw0-fight win streak over
Marvin Vettori and Reinier de Ridder, while Shahbazyan has been on the roster for nearly a decade.
For Allen, the decision to accept this fight was motivated by activity. He wanted to face former champion Dricus du Plessis and was in talks to face “Stillknocks,” but that bout never came to fruition. Per Allen, du Plessis seemingly ducked the matchup and never appeared all that injured.
“Because he’s a bitch,” Allen said of du Plessis to MMA Fighting. “It was supposed to be a done deal in January. I was told it was a done deal. Me and Dricus was done and then they said he got hurt and he’s not fighting until July. And I was, at that time, it was supposed to be like around May that I was told that I would fight him. So I was like, ‘No, I don’t want to wait, who’s next?‘ Or maybe it was end of April, I don’t even know. I think it may have been end of April, some somewhere in April, yeah, because then it got moved to May, then they said he got hurt.
“But he posted training videos the next week, so I don’t know. I kind of think I was a little bit finessed, to be honest with you, and I don’t know by who. I’m not saying it was by anyone in particular, but that’s what I feel. And then I asked for Usman. Like, let me fight Usman then, since [du Plessis’] hurt, he’s ready to go, let me fight him. I want to fight him. Let me fight him. And that didn’t come to fruition. I asked for many other guys, those didn’t come to fruition. I got sick of waiting, sick of waiting, needed the money, and I took the guy who was on a win streak and didn’t have a fight.”
Currently, du Plessis remains unbooked, though it’s heavily rumored he’ll be facing Usman next. If Allen is victorious on Saturday, hope remains alive that he can eventually settle his grudge with “DDP” inside the Octagon.
