Allen submits Duncan in five but leaves Las Vegas disappointed with his own display

Brendan Allen submitted Christian Leroy Duncan with a rear-naked choke in the fifth round of their middleweight main event at UFC Vegas 122 on Saturday, picking up a Performance of the Night bonus in the process — but the American walked away from the Octagon deeply unsatisfied with how he fought.

Duncan held the upper hand in the striking exchanges throughout much of the contest, while Allen found his footing on the ground. The fight took a notable turn in the second round when Duncan was docked a point for an eye poke. Rather than retreat, Duncan pressed the action in the final frame, only for Allen to drag him to the canvas and secure the finish.

Despite the result and the bonus, Allen was openly self-critical in the aftermath. He felt he had been slow and unresponsive inside the Octagon — a standard he clearly holds himself to regardless of the outcome.

“Ultimately, I’m just disappointed in myself,” Allen said after the fight. “Not having watched it or anything yet, I just felt like I was very slow and non-reactive. I thought for sure I would be a lot quicker. I still feel, after being in there, I am quicker.”

The candid assessment underlines Allen’s mentality: a finish and a bonus are the floor, not the ceiling. For a fighter who has built his reputation on relentless grappling pressure and finishing ability, a night where the striking exchanges went against him — even one that ended in a fifth-round submission — is evidently not good enough by his own measure.

The win keeps Allen in the middleweight conversation, though he will likely want to review the tape before drawing any firm conclusions about where the performance fell short.