LAS VEGAS – Because of outside forces, [autotag]Brendan Allen[/autotag] missed the opportunity to fight [autotag]Marvin Vettori[/autotag] on Saturday. He doesn’t think, however, the reward potential has been minimized by fighting a lesser-ranked opponent.
Allen (23-5 MMA, 11-2 UFC) fights Chris Curtis (31-10 MMA, 5-2 UFC) in the UFC Fight Night 240 main event at the UFC Apex. At a pre-fight news conference Wednesday, Allen admitted he sought to steal the No. 5 ranking from Vettori (19-6-1 MMA, 9-5-1 UFC) and still thinks it’s possible with a victory over Curtis.
“If I beat Chris on Saturday, I’m still going to be No. 5 next week,” Allen told MMA Junkie and other reporters. “You shouldn’t be able to stay where you’re at after being out for so long and then pulling out of fights. Other than that, I don’t really care. I’m going to move up. I’m going to go up and it’s old news from there. You could have fought me last year. You could’ve fought me this weekend. So, kind of, see you later, buddy.”
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According to Allen, the discrepancy in UFC rankings doesn’t accurately reflect the skill difference between Vettori and Curtis. He thinks Saturday’s outing actually got more difficult because of the swap.
“(Curtis’) IQ is better,” Allen said. “He’s got better technical abilities, in my opinion. I would say Chris is a lot tougher test than Marvin is. It is what it is. We’ve faced each other before, obviously. We only had a couple days or whatever to prepare if anything. Now, we have a little bit more time to prepare for each other. We’ll see who can make those adjustments and we’ll see what happens.”
For more on the card, visit MMA Junkie’s event hub for UFC Fight Night 240.