A middleweight matchup between streaking contenders Brendan Allen and Nassourdine Imavov was announced for the UFC’s upcoming card in France after it had previously looked like the matchup would not take place at the event.

UFC president Dana White announced Wednesday the 185-pound tilt is official for Sept. 28 at Accor Arena in Paris at an event headlined by lightweights Benoit Saint Denis and Renato Moicano.

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The matchup had been in the works but it was put into doubt when Allen posted a video to his social media in July saying he no longer wanted to take the fight unless it was going to be a main event.

Allen has headlined Fight Night cards in three of his past four outings and he explained earlier in the summer that he initially accepted the matchup with Imavov thinking it would be a main event.

The 28-year-old added at the time he didn’t think he nor Imavov should be fighting below fighters like Saint Denis or Moicano who aren’t ranked as high in their weight class as Allen and Imavov are in the middleweight ranks.

Imavov moved up to No. 4 at middleweight following his controversial TKO win over Jared Cannonier in June, while Allen sits at No. 7 and has won seven fights in a row, including a split decision over Chris Curtis in April. Allen has submitted five of his opponents on his current winning streak via rear-naked choke.

Saint Denis versus Moicano had already been verbally agreed to for the Paris main event when Allen was first approached about Imavov, so Allen instead challenged Imavov to fight in a main event in the United States. The UFC did not choose to go along with Allen’s suggestion. Imavov is from France and will have the crowd on his side in September.

The UFC also confirmed the following matchups are currently scheduled to take place at the event:
— Ion Cutelaba vs. Ivan Erslan
— Morgan Charrière vs. AJ Cunningham
— Germaine de Randamie vs. Nora Cornolle
— Fares Ziam vs. Matt Frevola
— William Gomis vs. Joanderson Brito
— Da-Woon Jung vs. Oumar Sy
— Ailín Pérez vs. Dariya Zheleznyakova
— Daniel Barez vs. Victor Altamirano

Saint Denis (13-2) is from France and will be looking to bounce back from his knockout loss to Dustin Poirier at UFC 299 in March that snapped a five-fight winning streak during which the 28-year-old finished all his opponents.

Moicano (19-5-1) has won three in a row, including a technical knockout of Jalin Turner at April’s UFC 300 and has had his hand raised in five of his past six overall. The popular Brazilian’s only loss since 2020 was a five-round unanimous decision to former lightweight champion Rafael dos Anjos at UFC 272 in what was a catchweight bout that Moicano took on only four days’ notice.

Brendan Allen vs. Nassourdine Imavov set for UFC Paris after initial rebuff

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