Former UFC Champ Snubs Brendan Allen's Call Out: 'To Be Honest, I Don’t Care'
Brendan Allen extended his winning streak to six victories with an impressive performance against Paul Craig at UFC Vegas 82. However, one former UFC middleweight champion isn’t interested in fighting the rising contender until he’s faced stiffer competition.
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“All In” began his time in the UFC with four-straight wins before he was finished by current middleweight champion Sean Strickland in 2020, and now he's currently looking to be in the best form of his career.
Allen's submission over Craig marked his fourth-consecutive victory via rear-naked choke, and the 27-year-old’s comments in his post-fight interview caught the attention of former UFC middleweight champion Robert Whittaker.
Allen put on a largely dominant performance in his last fight.
(Chris Unger/Zuffa LLC)
"I’m pretty sure in his speech he said he wants to fight a contender, he wants to fight me or [Jared] Cannonier,” Whittaker said on his MMArcade Podcast. “It’s hard to say – I think he’s number ten now, he’s obviously just broken into those top guys. I’m not a matchmaker.”
The matchup with Allen marked Craig’s second bout at middleweight after finishing Andre Muniz in July. Allen had also defeated Muniz earlier in the year. However, among the fighters Allen has defeated, Craig is the only one who currently holds a spot in the middleweight rankings.
Allen's win over Craig propelled him to the #8 spot in the middleweight rankings. Despite this, Whittaker, who currently holds the #3 spot, does not view a matchup between himself and Allen as a possibility.
Whittaker is a former UFC middleweight champion.
(Kamil Krzaczynski/USA TODAY Sports)
“Paul Craig wasn’t a tenth-ranked dude, he wasn’t in the Top 10 rankings. [Allen’s] gotta have his bite still I guess, [to get] the Top 10 fights…Just do your work. The UFC realize that, recognize that. The matchmakers are there. I don’t know who he fights next – to be honest, I don’t care.”
Prior to his shock defeat to Dricus Du Plessis at UFC 290, Whittaker's only middleweight losses had been to former champion Israel Adesanya.
With Du Plessis now poised to challenge Strickland for the middleweight title at UFC 297 in January, Whittaker may need to consider facing a lower-ranked opponent like Allen in order to regain his position in the title picture.
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