Brendan Allen knows what he wants next after Saturday’s UFC bout.
A 24-year-old middleweight fighter, Allen (14-3 MMA, 2-0 UFC) takes on promotional newcomer Kyle Daukaus at this weekend’s UFC on ESPN 12 event in Las Vegas. The bout with Daukaus is a late-replacement fix, as Allen was originally scheduled to meet UFC-ranked middleweight Ian Heinisch.
Allen said he was upset with the change at the time because he wanted to get his hands on a ranked opponent. However, he now just feels fortunate to have a fight.
“I was pretty frustrated at first just based on the fact that I really wanted that fight with Ian,” Allen told reporters at a virtual media day held Thursday. “Just personally, I wanted that spot more than anything. I want to be in the top 15 and that’s still my goal this year is to crack the top 15. Now it has to be later in the year – just as long as everything goes well.
“But with all that aside, I have a new opponent and I know he’s going to come hungry and want to show something. He probably would, but the downfall is that he’s going to fight me.”
Allen questions Heinisch’s withdrawal from the bout and said he’s been trying to fight Heinisch for quite some time. The Contender Series alumnus wants to “100 percent” get rebooked with Heinisch if successful Saturday night.
“I just don’t understand how you can say you’re injured and then post you’re going to Phuket to train, but that’s OK,” Allen said. “He’s going to need those extra three months for me.
“I’ve been trying to fight him since he got signed to LFA. I still think I have the messages where I asked to fight him when he got signed and they told me no. He was a wrestler and he was just going to take me down and hold me. I said it didn’t matter. I’d still tap him if it happens and they told me no and it never happened.
“And then he got a lot of hype. (He) still has a lot of hype, for whatever the case may be. They blow him up being a former drug dealer and all this crap. I mean I don’t know, it’s not my thing. To me you put yourself in that situation, so how is that a comeback? I don’t know, it’s self-inflicted, so I don’t really agree with any of that. Things that I’ve heard or seen about him in the gym or personally I don’t really care for. I don’t really care for him as a person from what I hear or have seen.”
Brendan Allen questions Ian Heinisch's UFC on ESPN 12 withdrawal, eyes rebooking
