{"id":713812,"date":"2026-06-04T02:18:08","date_gmt":"2026-06-04T02:18:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/713812\/"},"modified":"2026-06-04T02:18:08","modified_gmt":"2026-06-04T02:18:08","slug":"brendan-allen-feels-no-love-before-ufc-vegas-118","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/713812\/","title":{"rendered":"Brendan Allen Feels No Love Before UFC Vegas 118"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1upudxki _174s0un1 _174s0un0 _1mt21p01\">Top Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) Middleweight contender Brendan Allen makes his first appearance of the year when he takes on unranked knockout artist Edmen Shahbazyan in the co-main event of <a href=\"https:\/\/www.mmamania.com\/ufc-fight-cards\/434947\/ufc-vegas-118-fight-card-start-time-date-location-belal-vs-bonfim\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">UFC Vegas 118<\/a> this weekend (Sat., June 6, 2026) inside the Meta Apex in Las Vegas, Nevada.<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1upudxki _174s0un1 _174s0un0 _1mt21p01\">So, the optics of the matchmaking weren\u2019t great.<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1upudxki _174s0un1 _174s0un0 _1mt21p01\">However, it turns out Allen accepted the fight immediately when UFC approached him with it, mainly because he wanted to get paid and because Dricus du Plessis <a href=\"https:\/\/www.mmamania.com\/ufc-news\/430164\/money-hungry-brendan-allen-claims-former-ufc-champion-dodged-june-matchup-ddp-went-into-hiding-du-plessis\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">never accepted his callout<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1upudxki _174s0un1 _174s0un0 _1mt21p01\">But because he accepted a dangerous fight against an unranked opponent, does Allen feel appreciated by UFC and the fans?<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1upudxki _174s0un1 _174s0un0 _1mt21p01\">\u201cNo, I really haven\u2019t felt anything, to be honest,\u201d Allen told reporters during UFC Vegas 118 media day. \u201cI\u2019ve defended my spot many, many times, probably more than anyone in my division \u2014 outside the top 15 or in it. I win one, and then I have to defend two or three times, then go back. If I lose, then it is like four times. There is always a longer road for me, and I don\u2019t know why. Maybe I\u2019m not that much of a likable guy, I guess. It is what it is.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1upudxki _174s0un1 _174s0un0 _1mt21p01\">\u201cThis is my 19th UFC fight, I\u2019m 14-4 in the promotion, and I\u2019ve fought the best guys I can fight,\u201d Allen added. \u201cI\u2019ve only asked for the best guys that I could get. I hope they appreciate what I do, and I know that they know I\u2019ve stepped up many times \u2014 when I shouldn\u2019t have \u2014 but I still step up. And when I sign the contract, I\u2019m going to fight.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1upudxki _174s0un1 _174s0un0 _1mt21p01\">While a win over Shahbazyan doesn\u2019t do a ton for Allen in terms of rankings, it does keep him active and paid \u2014 and it keeps him in the title conversation if he gets through another dangerous opponent.<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1upudxki _174s0un1 _174s0un0 _1mt21p01\">\u201cAll In\u201d is hoping that, with another win, UFC finally rewards him with the kind of fight he has been asking for: a No. 1 contender bout.<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1upudxki _174s0un1 _174s0un0 _1mt21p01\">To checkout the latest and greatest UFC Vegas 118: \u201cMuhammad vs. Bonfim\u201d news and notes be sure to hit up our comprehensive event archive right <a href=\"https:\/\/www.mmamania.com\/ufc-paramount-plus-news-hub-fight-cards-schedule\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">here<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Top Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) Middleweight contender Brendan Allen makes his first appearance of the year when he&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":713813,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[570],"tags":[64,63,786,40762,785,85,1396,179146,14855],"class_list":["post-713812","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","tag-videos"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/713812","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=713812"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/713812\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/713813"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=713812"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=713812"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=713812"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}