UFC Fight Night on Sportsnet: Allen aims to avenge previous TKO loss to Curtis

This weekend’s UFC Fight Night is already the seventh event from the UFC Apex this year and it features the fourth middleweight main event of 2024 thus far as well as the fourth headline bout that is a rematch of a prior tilt.

Brendan Allen, the No. 6-ranked contender at 185 pounds, will have revenge on his mind when he faces No. 14-ranked Chris Curtis in Saturday’s marquee matchup. Saturday’s five-round scrap is taking place more than two years after their first encounter in which Curtis picked up a second-round technical knockout win inside the same venue.

The event was originally supposed to feature Allen taking on one-time title challenger Marvin Vettori, however, Vettori pulled out of the matchup injured roughly three weeks ago. Curtis stepped in as Vettori’s replacement looking to build off a blasé split decision win against Marc-André Barriault at UFC 297 in January.

Both fighters have competed six times since their initial meeting in December of 2021 yet despite Allen’s TKO loss to Curtis, there is a reason Allen sits at roughly a two-to-one betting favourite several days before the rematch.

Curtis, 36, has had mixed results since defeating Allen, going 3-2 with one no-contest without consecutive wins during that stretch, while it has been onwards and upwards for Allen who has looked like an improved fighter in each of his subsequent matchups.

Allen, 28, has earned six consecutive wins since facing Curtis and leapfrogged him in the 185-pound rankings. The calibre of his opponents during his current streak is quite impressive with the steel-hipped Jacob Malkoun his only opponent not to succumb to submission. The other five wins were all via submission and three earned him a Performance of the Night bonus.

The first fight ended when the two fighters landed simultaneous right hands with Curtis’s being the more damaging punch. It put Allen on skates and a series of clinch strikes and knees from Curtis were enough to send the rising Louisiana-based fighter back to the drawing board.

Curtis had also won the opening round on all three judges’ scorecards.

Allen’s path of least resistance in the rematch will be to look to impose his ground game and dangerous jiu-jitsu.

The younger fighter has a 23-5 pro MMA record with 14 of his victories coming by submission. He can display strong positional dominance when working on the canvas and is an aggressive submission artist with 1.7 attempts per 15 minutes. He will pursue leg locks and all kinds of attacks to help reverse a bad position and he has a particular knack for taking the back and sinking in the rear-naked choke. He has four consecutive wins by RNC, including over submission specialists Paul Craig and Andre Muniz

Curtis has only been submitted once in his MMA career and it was all the way back in 2011 in his seventh professional bout. The more experienced fighter is also the busier striker, landing 5.96 significant strikes per minute compared to 3.87 for Allen. That stat plus Curtis’s 92 per cent takedown defence are two key metrics for this matchup. 

Allen’s advantage on the ground will only be relevant if he can get the fight there. Allen has been training to compete on this date and Curtis never stops training as one of the more active middleweights in the sport with 12 fights (9-2, 1 NC) in the past three years alone, so despite the short-notice nature of the rematch, conditioning should not be an issue for either athlete.

If Curtis can pull off the upset, he’ll likely take Allen’s spot in the top 10 and it’ll be his first multi-fight winning streak in almost two years.

On the other hand, should Allen emerge with his hand raised it’ll accomplish several things: It evens the score with Curtis and extends Allen’s winning streak to seven. Allen will maintain his spot on the list of potential future middleweight contenders and secure himself another notable matchup later this year.

If Allen can get his previous loss to Curtis back then you can possibly expect his call-out list to include No. 12-ranked Anthony Hernandez whom Allen lost to in 2018 when they both fought in LFA, current No. 1 contender and former champ Sean Strickland who’s a teammate of Curtis and the only other fighter to finish Allen via strikes, or anyone else ranked above him in the top five.

UNDERCARD OVERVIEW

What can GDR offer in return? 

To say this weekend’s card lacks star power would be quite an understatement, however, the prelims do happen to feature a former UFC titleholder. Germaine de Randamie is ending a 3.5-year hiatus from the sport when she faces Norma Dumont in a preliminary card matchup in the women’s bantamweight division.

The inaugural UFC women’s featherweight champion has had a rather bizarre nine-fight UFC career. She is a talented Muay Thai striker but has rarely competed more than once per year. She was stripped of the 145-pound belt in 2017 after refusing to fight Cris Cyborg at the time. Her 7-2 UFC record includes wins over current bantamweight titleholder Raquel Pennington, former champions Julianna Pena and Holly Holm and her two losses were both to Amanda Nunes. If the 39-year-old from the Netherlands can show she still has gas in the tank it'll add some intrigue to a division that needs it.

This matchup offers Dumont the opportunity to really put her name on the map at 135 pounds by adding a former champion to her résumé. Dumont, 33, has won six of seven dating back to her UFC debut in 2020 and has never lost when competing at the bantamweight limit.

Below is the projected fight card for UFC Fight Night Allen vs. Curtis 2.

MAIN CARD

-- Brendan Allen vs. Chris Curtis

-- Alexander Hernandez vs. Damon Jackson

-- Morgan Charrière vs. Jose Mariscal

-- Ignacio Bahamondes vs. Christos Giagos

-- Valter Walker vs. Łucasz Brzeski

-- Trevor Peek vs. Charlie Campbell

PRELIMINARY CARD

-- Court McGee vs. Alex Morono

-- Norma Dumont vs. Germaine de Randamie

-- Dan Argueta vs. Jean Matsumoto

-- Dylan Budka vs. César Almeida

-- Nora Cornolle vs. Melissa Mullins

A men’s bantamweight matchup between Victor Hugo and Alatengheili was expected to take place in the prelims, however, Alatengheili reportedly withdrew due to injury and he will reportedly be replaced by Pedro Falcao.