Brendan Allen played spoiler on Saturday night, defeating Reinier de Ridder and dashing the Dutch fighter’s plan of leaping over Nassourdine Imavov into a middleweight title shot.

Allen was the dog coming into UFC Vancouver but fully expected to win, and wasn’t particularly surprised at how he did it. He dragged de Ridder into deep waters, exhausting him to the point where he quit on the stool between the fourth and fifth round.

According to Allen (via MMA Junkie), this isn’t the first time de Ridder has cracked.

“You can see it when he fought that Russian guy the second time in ONE,” Allen said, referring to Anatoly Malykhin. “He did the same thing. I think in the third or fourth round, he did the same thing. So yeah, I knew I could get it done.”

“Twenty-five minutes is a very, very long time to take punishment. I didn’t think he’d be able to do it. He took a round longer than I thought, but I also didn’t start off too hot in the first, so three rounds of dominance.”

De Ridder was originally supposed to face Anthony Hernandez in a fight the UFC said could earn the winner a fight against 185 pound champion Khamzat Chimaev. That talk dried up when “Fluffy” withdrew and Allen stepped in, but Allen made his case for earning the title shot despite being 2-2 over his last four with decision losses to Hernandez and Imavov.

“If anyone wants to sit down and break down the tape and actually knows the Unified Rules of MMA … you can argue, for both of those, that I won both of those fights,” Allen said. “But it is what it is. It’s a loss on my record. I learned from it. Even though I think it was very close, I arguably won them.”

“Maybe I’m delusional. Who knows? I don’t really care. It’s in the past. We’re growing. We’re learning. As I keep saying, I’m still the youngest guy in the top 15 and now the top 5. I probably have the most fights out of all of them. This is my 18th fight in six years. I’d say I’m pretty active. I haven’t fought slouches. I’ve fought all top guys. If you look at everyone I’ve fought in the moment I’ve fought them, they were all top dogs.”

“I don’t need to talk too much to boast myself up,” he said. “That’s not who I am. I let my record and my actions speak for themselves. I just come here, I get the job done, I give my best, I put on the best performance I can for the fans, for everyone, for the promotion. I step up and I’m trying to be the face. I’m trying to grow and be the best.”

““The division is stacked and growing even more stacked and I’m still here at the top and I’m still trying to reach that belt.”

If not a title, then Allen was open to facing longtime rival Dricus du Plessis.

“Yeah, man,” he said of a fight. “If that’s what it is, if that’s the timeline, because I don’t know when he wants to return.”