Brendan
Allen unveiled a fairly lengthy callout list following his
submission victory against Andre Muniz
in the makeshift
UFC Fight Night 220 main event.
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The former Dana White’s Contender Series alum first mentioned
rematches against Sean
Strickland and Chris
Curtis, the only two men to defeat him thus far during his 9-2
run in the UFC. If those aren’t possible, “All In” also targeted
bouts against either Jack
Hermansson or Dricus Du
Plessis. At the post-fight press conference, Allen explained
his reasoning behind the opponent wish list.
“At this point, I’m not really trying to chase anything. I’m a
super competitive guy. I like Sean and Chris, I think they’re very
good guys. We talked for 40 minutes at the UFC PI in the
cafeteria,” Allen said. “That’s just business and there’s a lot of
eyes if I fought Strickland again, especially me coming off a win
and him having fought the champion before, so that sets a
statement.
“I understand how this business works a little bit, so I’m OK with
fighting someone new. That’s why I gave two names, Dricus and Jack
(Hermansson). Me and Jack were supposed to line up a couple of
times, but it didn’t happen. … So I don’t care who it is. We can
run it whenever, wherever. I’m the best in the damn world, and I’m
going to keep showing that.”
While his next step remains uncertain, the MMA community was
buzzing after Allen tapped out Muniz, a renowned grappler, with a
rear-naked choke in the third round of their middleweight clash at
the UFC Apex in Las Vegas on Saturday night.
“My ego says let’s jump guard and see what’s up. But my
intelligence and my skill says let’s test him where he’s not so
good at,” Allen recalled. “Honestly, I felt like he was going to
get me down at some point .. My coaches, my team, my brother…[they]
told me, ‘He’s not gonna get you down.’ As soon as I felt him, I
knew he had nothing for me.
“This one kind of sucks a little bit because I think he’s a really
good guy,” Allen added. “I really like this guy, I have a lot of
respect for this man. He didn’t hide behind his ranking at the end
of the day… Hat’s off to Andre for sure.”
Allen has won four straight fights since falling to Curtis at UFC
on ESPN 31, a streak that includes wins over Sam Alvey,
Jacob
Malkoun and Krzysztof
Jotko.