Brendan Allen is perplexed how Marvin Vettori still holds such a prestigious position in the UFC’s official middleweight rankings.
Allen (24-6 MMA, 12-3 UFC), who rematches Anthony Hernandez (13-2 MMA, 7-2 UFC) in a middleweight bout at UFC Fight Night 252 on Feb. 22 at Climate Pledge Arena in Seattle (ESPN+), has no love for former divisional title challenger Vettori.
Vettori (19-6-1 MMA, 9-5-1 UFC) was scheduled to fight Allen in the UFC Fight Night 240 headliner this past April, but withdrew due to injury. In August, the pair got into an on-camera brawl on the casino floor of the Seminole Hard Rock Hotel & Casino in Hollywood, Fla.
After Allen suffered a unanimous decision loss to Nassourdine Imavov in September to snap his winning streak, the timing felt right to book the grudge match. Allen agreed, but he said it didn’t come to fruition again.
“Hell, we’ve been there once and he didn’t show up,” Allen told MMA Junkie Radio. “I asked for him this fight – publicly, behind closed doors, and it just never materializes.”
Although Allen would happily oblige with the opportunity to punch Vettori in the face, he said from a career management perspective, it’s not a fight he thinks advances his position at 185 pounds. Even despite the rankings.
If Allen, 29, beats Hernandez at UFC Fight Night 252, he will be 8-1 in his past nine octagon appearances. Vettori, meanwhile, is 2-3 in his past five, hasn’t won since March 2023 and hasn’t seen action a brutal loss to Jared Cannonier in June 2023 where he absorbed a record-setting amount of significant strikes.
Despite that, Vettori still holds the No. 7 spot in the official UFC rankings, and that irks Allen, who holds the No. 9 position.
“To be honest, I don’t understand why he’s ranked where he’s at,” Allen said. “We can go resumes and we can go over a whole bunch of different things, but at the end of the day I don’t understand it. The guy’s ranked over me, over the guy (Cannonier) that set a record on him in his last fight, what, two years ago? So I don’t see how fighting him does anything good for me if I go out there and beat ‘Flurry’ how I expect to.
“I don’t see how it does anything for me. I’m still going to have to fight one or two more after him in order to get to the belt. But at the end of the day, I’m super easy.”
For more on the card, visit MMA Junkie’s event hub for UFC Fight Night 252.
