Brendan
Allen doesn’t agree with Khamzat
Chimaev being ranked in the
Ultimate Fighting Championship’s middleweight division.
Chimaev (13-0) made his long-awaited permanent move to middleweight
at UFC 294 last month against short-notice replacement Kamaru
Usman (20-4), who also made his debut at 185 pounds. A -300
favorite on some sportsbooks going into the fight, “Borz” managed
to eke out a majority decision.
While the fight was widely believed to be a middleweight title
eliminator, Chimaev was allegedly not even discussed as a potential
opponent while booking Sean
Strickland’s upcoming defense against Dricus Du
Plessis at
UFC 297 on Jan. 20.
However, “Borz” landed directly at No. 8 on the middleweight ladder
as per the newly updated UFC rankings.
No. 10 ranked middleweight Brendan
Allen slammed the UFC ranking system for giving Chimaev a spot
in the Top 10 of the division, despite him having not fought a true
middleweight, let alone a ranked one.
“It wasn’t a middleweight fight. They weighed in at ‘85, but
they’re both 170s. I don’t know how you rank — I don’t know if
anyone here’s on the panel, but if you do, I don’t like you,” said
Allen during UFC Fight Night 232 media day ahead of his main event
meeting with Paul Craig.
“I’m just going to be honest. “It’s bullsh*t. This guy hasn’t beat
an ‘85er. He hasn’t beat an ‘85er, especially a ranked ‘85er. He
beat the No. 1 170 guy. Cool. Congratulations. I think everyone can
agree a five-round fight, Kamaru wins and that was off the couch.
Keep him at ‘70 and rank him No. 1, do that. This is a different
thing,”
Allen further accused the rankings system of being motivated by
factors other than pure skill. Based on performance and activity,
Allen believes there are several fighters who don’t deserve their
spots in the Top 15.
“The rankings are absolutely political bullsh*t. It’s people going
off of what? It’s politics because it’s not off of skill. If we’re
going off pure skill there’s tons of guys that shouldn’t be in. How
do we have guys that haven’t fought in two years in the rankings?
Three years. How is that a thing? It shouldn’t even be close. There
should be guidelines. You have to fight at least this many times —
at least once a year. If you don’t, you get pulled.”