Brendan Allen claimed revenge over Chris Curtis with a split-decision win in their middleweight main event of a Fight Night at the APEX Facility in Las Vegas on the morning of Sunday 7 April.
Allen, who moved to 24-5 with a seventh straight win, took the fight 47-48 48-47 49-46 on the judges' scorecards after a full 25 minutes, avenging a TKO loss suffered at the hands of Curtis back in December 2021.
Allen did well to hold his own in the stand-up against the powerful striking of Curtis, and impressed with his takedown ability and the threat of a rear-naked choke submission. However, as the split decision suggests, it was a tight fight.
“Chris is tough as s***,” Allen said about his opponent. “He’s short, it’s tough to get shots on him. Short notice [Curtis replaced Marvin Vettori, who was originally slated to face Allen], hats off to Chris.”
He went on to call for a title shot against middleweight champion Dricus du Plessis: “Where’s that title shot? Ain’t nobody got the streak I got. What’s up? Dricus [du Plessis] you know I’m going to whoop that ass. Come get this business. If I can’t get Dricus, Sean [Strickland] let’s run it back.”
In the rest of the main card, further split decision wins were recorded by Damon Jackson over Alexander Hernandez in a catchweight (147.5 lb) bout, and by Jose Mariscal over Morgan Charriere in the featherweight division; Ignacio Bahamondes stopped Christos Giagos in the first round of their lightweight fight; and Charlie Campbell outpointed Trevor Peek for a unanimous decision triumph in their lightweight opener.
Next weekend brings UFC 300 from the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas on the morning of Sunday 14 April, with a stacked card headlined by a match for the light heavyweight world championship between Alex Pereira and Jamahal Hill.