Brendan Allen hopes UFC Paris win will lead to title shot

Middleweight Brendan Allen will make the walk to the octagon inside Accor Arena in Paris, France on Saturday riding a seven-fight winning streak and ranked eighth in the 185-pound division.  

“All In” takes on fourth-ranked Nassourdine Imavov in the UFC Paris co-main event and believes a win over the fourth-ranked fighter could lead to a title shot.  

“Ideally speaking, if I go out there and beat Imavov, especially if I finish Imavov within three in his hometown in front of his people, I think I’ve checked every single box except one to fight for the title,” Allen told MMAJunkie.

“There’s really nothing I can really do overnight to check the one box, which is followers,” Allen continued.  “I don’t know.  That’s not my jam.”

While Allen may lack social media followers, he makes up for it with his in-octagon performances.  The last time Allen tasted defeat was in December 2021, losing to Chris Curtis.  He avenged that loss in his last outing in April.

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“Everything, on a fighting level, I think after that I have done everything single thing,” Allen said.  “My ultimate goal would be to fight the winner of the belt.  Whoever is fighting for the belt next, which I think is Sean [Strickland] and Dricus [du Plessis], fight the winner of that.”  

“I’m the new blood.  I’m the youngest guy at the top.  Me and Dricus have the longest win streaks in the division,” Allen continued.  “I think there’s a lot of good arguments to be made.  The only negative is the followers, but everyone knows when I come to fight, I’m coming to fight.  Win or lose, I’m going to put on a fight.  You’re going to know you were in a fight… At the end of the day, I think if I go out there and do my job Saturday, I think I have hopefully a great argument.”