{"id":554524,"date":"2026-03-21T08:04:09","date_gmt":"2026-03-21T08:04:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/554524\/"},"modified":"2026-03-21T08:04:09","modified_gmt":"2026-03-21T08:04:09","slug":"brendan-allen-explains-surprise-booking-blames-former-ufc-champion-for-dodging-fight","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/554524\/","title":{"rendered":"Brendan Allen explains surprise booking, blames former UFC champion for dodging fight"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1nfb3k4i _16w9vov1 _16w9vov0 ls9zuh1\">Fight fans were surprised to see No 6-ranked middleweight contender Brendan Allen <a href=\"https:\/\/www.mmamania.com\/ufc-fight-announcements\/430051\/huh-brendan-allen-draws-unranked-opponent-for-ufc-vegas-118-after-stopping-top-ranked-reinier-de-ridder\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">matched up against unranked veteran<\/a> Edmen Shahbazyan for UFC Vegas 118 this coming June, but now we know why UFC matchmakers were left to book the 185-pound clash.<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1nfb3k4i _16w9vov1 _16w9vov0 ls9zuh1\">Allen, who is coming off a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.mmamania.com\/ufc-results\/396850\/ufc-vancouver-results-brendan-allen-forces-bloody-reinier-de-ridder-to-quit-on-the-stool\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">spectacular short-notice finish<\/a> over Reinier de Ridder his last time out, was expecting to lock down a fight with former UFC middleweight champion Dricus du Plessis next. \u201cDDP\u201d is coming off a title-losing effort against Khamzat Chimaev at UFC 319 last summer and appears ready to return to the Octagon in the first half of 2026. A clash between Allen and du Plessis would have made a ton of sense, but according to Allen the former UFC champion wanted nothing to do with it.<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1nfb3k4i _16w9vov1 _16w9vov0 ls9zuh1\">\u201cAll In\u201d posted the following message to Instagram on Friday, accusing \u201cDDP\u201d of dodging a fight:<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup _1teeyfa8 ls9zuh1\">\u201cDDP went into hiding and I\u2019m here to fight anyone and everyone and put some money in my bank!!\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1nfb3k4i _16w9vov1 _16w9vov0 ls9zuh1\">Allen, who has been part of the UFC roster since 2019, has fought almost everyone there is to fight at 185 pounds. The veteran contender has never turned down a fight offer and is simply looking to stay active, which is why he accepted a matchup with Shahbazyan this June. Allen is riding a two-fight win streak and is 8-2 overall in his last 10 trips to the Octagon, but it\u2019s unknown at this time what a win over Shahbazyan will do for Allen\u2019s UFC title hopes.<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1nfb3k4i _16w9vov1 _16w9vov0 ls9zuh1\">To checkout UFC\u2019s upcoming schedule of events click <a href=\"https:\/\/www.mmamania.com\/pages\/ufc-mma-schedule\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">here<\/a>.<a href=\"http:\/\/www.mmamania.com\/ufc-fight-announcements\/430051\/huh-brendan-allen-draws-unranked-opponent-for-ufc-vegas-118-after-stopping-top-ranked-reinier-de-ridder#comments\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\"><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Fight fans were surprised to see No 6-ranked middleweight contender Brendan Allen matched up against unranked veteran Edmen&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":554525,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[570],"tags":[64,63,786,40762,785,85,1396,179146],"class_list":["post-554524","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-mma","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-fighting","tag-latest-ufc-mma-news","tag-mma","tag-sports","tag-ufc-news","tag-ufc-on-paramount"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/554524","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=554524"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/554524\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/554525"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=554524"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=554524"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=554524"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}