Rising middleweight contender Brendan Allen has a point to prove when he steps inside the Octagon with one-time title challenger Marvin Vettori next month.
Riding a five-fight win streak, ‘All In’ will face his toughest test yet when he meets ‘The Italian Dream’ in a UFC Fight Night headliner on April 6. Speaking with James Lynch in a MiddleEasy exclusive interview weeks away from their high-stakes clash, Allen briefly discussed his matchup with Vettori and how it all came together.
“He had his chance last year to fight me and he turned it down so I didn’t really care anymore, but some things you can’t get by and people want them,” Allen said. “Whatever the UFC wants, they’re going to figure out a way to get it and I’m not the type to argue or complain. When it’s time to fight, it’s time to fight and when I get to that point, I’ll fight whoever.
“Everyone else was beat up for matched up at the time and I didn’t want to wait either so it just fell into place. It is what it is.”
There is certainly no love lost between the two top 10 contenders. Sharing some insight into the intense rivalry, Allen revealed that the bad blood began after Vettori made an ill-advised remark while they were eating lunch at the UFC’s Performance Institute in Las Vegas.
“I think it started in the PI,” Allen recalled. “We were having lunch before. Chris Curtis and Sean [Strickland] came over to my table. We were all chatting, catching up, and whatever. He was sitting in the back eating with some dude and out of nowhere he’s like, ‘Brendan, how’s it feel to be eating with two guys that knocked you out?’ Before I could even say anything Sean was like, ‘Bro, it’s all good. We’re just hanging out.’
“I didn’t say anything, but it was like, ‘You’re a funny guy.’ He’s the kind of guy who instigates stuff and then plays the victim when something goes awry. He’s just one of those people, just like he did on Saturday night. Everyone’s good at talking sh*t. He’s like, ‘I’m real. I’m coming right to you.’ No, you’re a b*tch. You waited till everyone got in between us and then acted like you were going to do something, but when we were a foot from each other, he did nothing, but talk.”
That bad blood briefly spilled out inside the Kaseya Center over the weekend during UFC 299. In attendance to watch his friend Dustin Poirier deliver another highlight-reel knockout, Brendan Allen got wind that Vettori was talking trash about him on social media, sparking a response that nearly resulted in fists being thrown.
“Earlier in the night, he had posted a picture about me on his [Instagram] stories, but he didn’t tag me, but it got back to me,” Allen explained. “He put a bunch of emojis like I’m scared of him or something so I posted, but I [tagged] him because I’m not a b*tch. He finally seen it and came over like, ‘Who told you?!’ I told him don’t worry about it. Don’t be mad at the ear, be mad at the mouth. He was like, ‘You’re a b*tch. You hang out with rats,” and blah, blah.
… That was really it”
Brendan Allen Plans to Be the First Fighter to Finish Marvin Vettori
Though he hasn’t reached the top of the mountain, Marvin Vettori has amassed a solid 19-6-1 record with notable wins against Roman Dolidze, Paulo Costa, Kevin Holland, and Jack Hermansson. ‘The Italian Dream’ has also been exceptional in defeat, never once being finished despite suffering losses to former champions Robert Whittaker and Israel Adesanya on two separate occasions.
However, none of that impresses Brendan Allen, who has every intention of finishing Vettori and knocking the perennial contender back into reality.
“He hasn’t beaten anybody good. He doesn’t finish anybody,” Allen said. “Is he tough? Hell yeah, I’ll give him that. He’s tough. He’s got a great mindset, but I’m gonna walk him like a dog. Technically, I’m way superior. I’m gonna show him exactly that on fight night. If it’s gotta be gritty and he wants to make it a fight, I can do that too. His only hope is to catch me, but he’s delusional. He’s a legit delusional person. This is the same guy who thinks he f*cking smashed Izzy.”
He continued, “I’m going to finish him. I’ve fought guys that have knocked people out or never been dropped, and this and that. Guys that ain’t been submitted, I submit them. Just because he hasn’t been finished doesn’t mean anything to me. He hasn’t fought me. He hasn’t fought anyone like me. I’m going out there to put him away. My goal is to outclass him and then put him away. I’m coming to prove a point. I’m proving it to myself that I am that damn good.”
A win over Vettori likely gets Brendan Allen into the top five, but as for whether or not it will earn him a title opportunity, he’s not so sure.
“That’s hard to say because the division is so crazy,” Allen said. “I hope it puts me above everyone else for a title shot, but you never know, man. Honestly, I think if I had a crazy ton of followers, I would already have [a title shot], but I don’t so I just have to do all this sh*t off of skill because I’m not the kind of guy to do things for clicks. I’m just me. I don’t change me.
“Worst case scenario, one more fight after this for the No. 1 contender and then the title shot because the champion couldn’t hold my lunch.”
In January, Dricus Du Plessis scored a split-decision victory over Sean Strickland to claim the UFC middleweight title. Next on the docket for DDP will be a long-awaited showdown with former two-time titleholder Israel Adesanya. But if things go Allen’s way, he’ll eventually get his shot against the man he’s been chasing down for years.
“I just think the dude has been ducking me the whole time,” Allen continued. “I’ve been trying to fight him ever since he came into the UFC. He’s only had one real fight and was gifted the belt. I like to talk my sh*t like everyone else, but there’s a certain point when I don’t want to talk anymore. I just want to show it. I feel that way for the Marvin fight and I feel that way for [DDP] as well.”
Watch the full exclusive interview below:
