Brendan Allen has crushed Reinier de Ridder’s immediate hopes for a UFC middleweight title shot. De Ridder needed an impressive performance to justify a shot at Khamzat Chimaev. Instead, Allen, a short-notice replacement, played spoiler in Vancouver on Saturday.
Allen and De Ridder were competitive foils for each other, strong grapplers with in-your-face striking. The difference was Allen’s ability to do damage from superior positions. When De Ridder was on top, he’d prioritize control and submission attempts that didn’t make it far. When Allen was on top, he’d bludgeon De Ridder with hard strikes.
Fatigue was another significant factor. De Ridder was preparing for the endless cardio of Anthony “Fluffy” Hernandez, yet slowed down much quicker than Allen, who stepped in on four weeks’ notice. De Ridder fought well in Round 1, but Allen took over with progressively more dominant rounds from there.
De Ridder was visibly tired after the end of Round 3 where he slowly got to his feet to return to his corner. When he did the same after Round 4, referee Jason Herzog threatened that he’d stop the fight if he didn’t get to his corner. When he did, his coaches asked him if he was OK to continue and de Ridder shook his head no. The fight was officially ruled a TKO win for Allen. Post-fight, Allen called out former UFC middleweight champion Dricus Du Plessis.
The win over De Ridder (No. 4) could leapfrog Allen (No. 9) over Hernandez (No. 6) in the official UFC middleweight rankings, despite Hernandez beating Allen in February. At the very least, it goes a long way to improve his standing after recent losses to Hernandez and Imavov.
Saturday’s conclusion also clears the way for Imavov (No. 2) to challenge Chimaev after beating Caio Borralho in September. Imavov is on a five-fight winning streak and, with De Ridder no longer in the running, stands as the most qualified candidate for a middleweight title shot.
Allen (26-7) is coming off consecutive wins over De Ridder and Marvin Vettori. De Ridder (21-3) suffers his first UFC loss after going 4-0 since signing with the promotion in November. Before joining UFC, De Ridder was a two-division ONE Championship titleholder.
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