Allen ‘All Out’ Of UFC Main Event in Sept.

Allen picked up his fifth straight victory by submitting Bruno Silva at UFC Jacksonville last weekend in “The Sunshine State” and will now wait for Dricus Du Plessis to handle his business against Robert Whittaker at UFC 290, much to the chagrin of middleweight bruiser Roman Dolidze.

Turns out Brendan Allen is not “All In,” regardless of his MMA nickname.

Despite telling the combat sports media he “fears no man and turns down no fight,” the red-hot middleweight contender recently rejected a fall headliner against Roman Dolidze, who is ranked two spots higher than Allen at No. 9 (see the middleweight rankings here).

Allen (22-5) instead has his sights set on No. 5-ranked Dricus Du Plessis, who battles former champion Robert Whittaker at the upcoming UFC 290 pay-per-view (PPV) event on July 8 inside T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas, Nevada.

“I heard they offered Imavov and Roman the night of the fight and it never even got back to me, it was cut off there,” Allen told ESPN. “And they just offered again, Roman, because now he’s talking or whatever, but we told them we’re gonna see what happens with Dricus and Whittaker and if Dricus loses, that’s the play. He’s No. 5. Obviously if he loses he probably wouldn’t drop … it’s just the play. To me it’s Dricus and if not Dricus then we’ll reevaluate the situation.”

The 27 year-old Allen was briefly paired with Dolidze ahead of the UFC Vegas 44 fight card back in late 2021; however, the Georgian subsequently fell by the wayside and was replaced by middleweight “Action Man” Chris Curtis.

Curtis stopped Allen by way of second-round technical knockout.

“The difference between me and Allen is that I will NEVER say no,” Dolidze wrote on social media. “Give me a name and I will be there for the main event in September, no excuses!”

Dolidze (12-2) is looking to rebound from a decision loss to Marvin Vettori.

“Lmao first off I ain’t fighting [in] September,” Allen responded. “Second I already said yes to you and what happened … oh yeah you didn’t show, so you can take all this talk somewhere else, because thats all it is TALK. Not my fault you failed your Top 5 opportunity, now it’s my turn.”

UFC is on the hunt for a headlining act to complete its final “Fight Night” card in September after recently booking the welterweight main event between Shavkat Rakhmonov and Kelvin Gastelum for Sept. 16 in Las Vegas.