Allen Shocks: Knocks Out De Ridder and Calls Out Chimaev in UFC

Brendan Allen Achieves the Most Important Victory of His Career at UFC Fight Night

In an exciting UFC Fight Night event in Vancouver, middleweight Brendan Allen secured the most significant victory of his career by stopping Reinier de Ridder in the fourth round. Despite accepting the fight on short notice, Allen (26-7) kept his promise to defeat de Ridder (21-3), exhausting him on the mat and forcing his corner to throw in the towel between the fourth and fifth rounds.

This result ended de Ridder’s four-fight winning streak in the UFC, which began last November. Originally, de Ridder was scheduled to face Anthony Hernandez, but Allen stepped in after Hernandez withdrew due to injury.

“I feel good about having done exactly what I said I would do. This was for me after 3.5 weeks out of training. I told you I’m a different monster, when my head is clear and we’re in shape, I’m the best in the world,” Allen declared.

Brendan Allen

Allen, originally from Louisiana, had a complicated start in the first round, but quickly changed the course. Although he conceded a takedown and spent a large part of the round defending submissions, he dominated the grappling exchanges in the second, third, and fourth rounds. Allen accumulated more than 11 minutes of control time and connected 128 total strikes against 51 for de Ridder, according to UFC statistics. De Ridder could barely stand at the end of the fourth round and struggled to return to his corner. Referee Jason Herzog closely examined de Ridder between rounds before his team made the decision to throw in the towel. Immediately after the fight, Allen called out UFC middleweight champion Khamzat Chimaev, as well as former champions Dricus Du Plessis and Sean Strickland, whom he lost to in 2020.

Brendan Allen had over 11 minutes of control time in his TKO victory over Reinier de Ridder on Saturday night.

Photo by Jeff Bottari/Zuffa LLC

“Chimaev, if you want a good grappler, someone young and hungry, you got it, baby. Dricus, where are you? I’ve been trying to face you for a minute. If not, Sean, it’s time to run it back,” Allen added.

Brendan Allen

Allen arrived at the main event on Saturday as the UFC’s number 9 middleweight. De Ridder was ranked number 4. In the co-main event, Canadian welterweight Mike Malott (13-2-1) secured a notable victory over Kevin Holland (28-15) by decision. Aiemann Zahabi (14-2) continued to climb the bantamweight rankings with a decision victory over former champion Marlon Vera (23-11-1) by split decision.