Brendan Allen is turning his latest victory into a loud call for a second shot at UFC middleweight champion Sean Strickland.
Allen, now on a seven-fight win streak and winner of his past three bouts, is campaigning for a rematch with Strickland after defeating Edmen Shahbazyan in the co-main event of UFC Vegas 118 and scoring an upset over top 10-ranked Reinier de Ridder in the main event of UFC Vancouver this past October.
“It’s hard to say, I don’t think I deserve anything,” Allen said. “I try to earn everything I get. I mean, f*ck, I hope Sean goes out here, he’s the champion, so hopefully he picks me. Let’s run this shit back. It’s been six years since we fought, I think I was beating him going into it. If you watch our fight at different angles, you can tell he didn’t hit me with the strike set, it wasn’t there.”
Strickland previously defeated Allen in a 195-pound catchweight bout in November 2020 before going on to capture the 185-pound title from Israel Adesanya and later becoming a two-time champion by defeating Khamzat Chimaev at UFC 328.
Allen, who says his UFC record stands at 15-4 and has collected three Performance of the Night bonuses plus two Fight of the Night honors in his past three fights, is also open to other routes in the middleweight title mix alongside names like Nassourdine Imavov, Caio Borralho, and Khamzat Chimaev.
“If not, let me and Nassourdine fight,” Allen added. “If Nassourdine wants to sit out and wait, that’s fine, let me fight the winner of Usman and Dricus in October, maybe early November at the worst, so we’ll see.”
