Brendan Allen already has a post-fight plan for UFC Vegas 122, and it involves a leash. The middleweight said he aims to “dog walk” an ex-champ if he gets through Christian Leroy Duncan in Saturday’s main event, as Mike Bohn reported for MMA Junkie. Which former champion Allen has in mind wasn’t spelled out in the headline making the rounds Thursday, so I’m not going to guess for him. The intent is plain enough. Allen wants a win over CLD to buy him a fight against a big name with a belt in his past.
The card goes Oct. 10 at the Meta APEX in Las Vegas, streaming on Paramount Plus at 8 p.m. ET.
The matchup
Allen is ranked fourth at 185 and is a veteran of 19 octagon appearances. He’s won three straight in the UFC, most recently over Edmen Shahbazyan on June 6 at the APEX, and he’s kept busy on the side with back-to-back submission wins in grappling contests. The majority of his pro wins have come by submission, and nobody across the cage is pretending otherwise.
View post on X
Duncan certainly isn’t. The British middleweight and former Cage Warriors champion told MMA Fighting he expects Allen to drag the fight where it suits him, saying that in Allen’s shoes, “that’s the route that I would take against somebody like me.” CLD is on a five-fight run and 3-0 in 2026, beating Roman (who he described as a top-15 fighter) and then taking a unanimous decision over Jared Cannonier in July. He also told MMA Fighting the fight “is not likely to go the full five rounds” given the styles involved.
Everybody wants a former champ
Here’s where it gets crowded. Duncan has his own eye on an ex-champion, naming Dricus du Plessis as a possible next opponent and floating a London headliner in the first quarter of 2027. He went further and said a title shot with a big finish wasn’t out of the question: “I don’t see why not.”
View post on X
The title picture above both of them is messy. Sean Strickland is the champion after upsetting Khamzat Chimaev at UFC 328, the same Chimaev who took the belt from du Plessis. All signs point to Strickland defending against Nassourdine Imavov, though MMA Fighting noted there appears to be a financial hurdle holding that fight up. Imavov is on a five-fight streak, and one of those wins was a decision over Allen, followed by Adesanya and Caio Borralho. So Allen has already lost to the guy at the front of the line, which explains why he’s shopping for a different ladder.
My take
I like Allen’s angle more than I like most callouts, because it’s honest about math. He can’t leapfrog a man who beat him, so he’s angling for the next-best fight on the board, and a former champ is a bigger paycheck and a bigger ranking bump than another contender scrap. But a callout is worth exactly zero until the hand goes up, and I’ve cashed enough tickets on guys looking past the fight in front of them to know it cuts both ways (I’ve torched a few too). Duncan is younger in the division, rolling, and openly game-planning for the takedown. If Allen gets CLD down early and starts hunting a neck, he earns the right to pick his dog. If Duncan keeps it standing past the first 10 minutes, that former champion’s name might end up in the other guy’s mouth on Saturday night.
View post on X
