Brendan Allen wants Nassourdine Imavov one more time, and he wants UFC gold attached to it.
Allen posted his pitch on social media Thursday, and it spread fast on r/MMA. He called for a vacant or interim UFC middleweight belt, asked to run the fight back in the U.S., where in his view the commission won’t mess anything up, and billed the two of them as young, hungry killers ready to kick off a new era at 185.
That’s a callout, a title proposal and a dig at whoever regulated their first fight, all in one post. Allen didn’t spell out exactly what the commission got wrong. His position is plain enough: he thinks the result was compromised, and he thinks an American venue fixes it.
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Why Allen is pushing
The timing makes sense. Allen is coming off a fifth-round submission of Christian Leroy Duncan at UFC Vegas 122 last Saturday. Duncan had been on a run, and Allen ended it in the championship rounds. That’s four straight wins for Allen and an 11-2 record dating back to 2022, per MMA Fighting.
The two losses in that stretch are the problem. One came against Anthony Hernandez and the other against Imavov, and those results seem to have left UFC matchmakers unsure where to slot him. Allen had been angling for Dricus du Plessis as a route to a title shot. Robert Whittaker, on his MMArcade Podcast, floated Khamzat Chimaev instead.
Allen has people in his corner. Chris Weidman questioned on UFC on Paramount why Allen keeps beating lower-ranked opponents and never gets the big one: “What is he missing?” Belal Muhammad went further on X: “My brother Brendan Allen is the next 185 champion! I believe it!”
The belt problem
The vacant-or-interim framing tells you where the division is. Sean Strickland holds the title after handing Chimaev the first loss of his career in Chimaev’s first defense at UFC 328 in May. Strickland has aired public grievances with the UFC over his pay, and MMA Fighting reports the top of the 185-pound division is on hold until that’s sorted.
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Imavov is the man MMA Fighting describes as the top contender, and the outlet reported Strickland appears more likely to rematch him than to run it back with Chimaev, assuming Strickland fights at all. So Allen’s rematch request comes with a much bigger ask stapled to it: he wants the UFC to route around its own champion.
Meanwhile, the rest of the division keeps moving. Caio Borralho meets Yousri Belgaroui at UFC 334, and Joe Pyfer faces Bo Nickal at UFC 335 on Dec. 12.
Quick take
I like Allen. He fights constantly, he finishes people, and he says what he wants without a PR filter. But I’d rather eat a fight-week buffet at a casino than watch the UFC hand out another interim strap because a champion and the company can’t agree on a number. If Strickland’s out, strip it and make it vacant. And if Allen wants the Imavov rematch to count, he’s got the right idea about the venue, because nobody should leave a title fight arguing about the commission. Borralho and Belgaroui go next at UFC 334, and the winner of that one will have something to say about Allen’s plan too.
