Allen submits Duncan in five rounds and demands du Plessis stop dodging him

Brendan Allen kept his middleweight momentum alive at UFC Vegas 122 on Saturday, submitting Christian Leroy Duncan with a rear-naked choke in the fifth round of their main event, then immediately turned his attention to former champion Dricus du Plessis.

The finish was Allen’s fourth consecutive victory inside the UFC octagon and his second straight fight in which he was forced to defend his position rather than move forward in the rankings. Ranked fourth in the middleweight division, Allen made clear at the post-fight press conference that du Plessis is the only fight that makes sense to him next — and that he believes the South African has been stalling.

“Yeah, if he drops his nuts,” Allen said when asked about a potential matchup with du Plessis. “It’s just all talk from his side all the time. I’ve been waiting to sign the contract… we’ve had our differences. And we’re supposed to have been agreed to fight before, so it’s not like it’s unreasonable.”

Allen stopped short of saying he would chase the fight indefinitely. “I’m not chasing that motherf*cker. If he wants to fight, then fight. If not, we’ll figure something else out. I know Hunter [Campbell] will have a plan for me, and we’ll see what it is.”

The frustration stems in part from du Plessis’s most recent outing — a main-event appearance against former welterweight champion Kamaru Usman at UFC Oklahoma City in July. Allen argued that matchup was a deliberate step away from the harder fights available to him at 185 pounds.

“He fought Kamaru. Everyone’s hyping up Kamaru because his résumé — yes, he has a great résumé, he is one of the best to ever do it at welterweight. But we’re not there anymore. Father Time will get every one of us if we stay in this game long enough.”

Allen was blunt in his assessment of where he stands relative to du Plessis’s recent opponents. “I’m younger, I’m hungrier, I’m bigger, I’m faster, I’m stronger. He’s got more title fights, but the amount of fights I’ve got is probably close. I’m tough. I think I’m technically better — but that’s just my opinion. Either way, no matter how you cut it, at that point in time, I was the harder fight. No doubt about it. So he took the easier fight. He knows it, I know it, everyone else knows it.”

Whether UFC matchmakers act on Allen’s call-out remains to be seen, but a fourth-ranked contender on a four-fight streak will be difficult to overlook for much longer.