Brendan Allen thinks the main event slot at UFC Paris belongs to him and Nassourdine Imavov.
On Saturday, the promotion makes its annual pit stop in The City of Light with a couple of high-stakes clashes at the top of the card. In the evening’s headliner, streaking Brazilian standout Renato Moicano will square off with Benoit Saint-Denis. It will be a battle of top 15 contenders with ‘Money’ sitting as the No. 11 ranked lightweight while the ‘God of War’ occupies the spot just below him.
Meanwhile, the co-main event will see two top 10 standouts in the middleweight division throw down as the No. 8 ranked Brendan Allen faces fourth-ranked contender Nassourdine Imavov.
With some serious title implications at play in the penultimate bout, Allen was a little baffled by Moicano and Saint-Denis being assigned main event duties.
“I feel like it’s a little disrespectful to me and not just to me, but to Imavov as well,” Allen told MMA Fighting. “Our fight has potential title implications wrapped around it, whereas this is #11 and #14 [#12], I think, if I’m not mistaken. The two guys in the main event should be the co-main event under us.”
Brendan Allen gets it, but he still doesn’t like it
With a 100% finish rate in his mixed martial arts career, Benoit Saint-Denis has become synonymous with guaranteed bangers inside the Octagon.
That and the fact that he’s from Nîmes, France — a mere seven hours away from Paris — it’s not all that surprising that the promotion opted to make him one half of the main event. Still, ‘All In’ remains steadfast that he and Imavov should be the ones going five rounds.
“I get it, Saint Denis is super famous here, but at the end of the day, people are going to come watch the fight no matter what, whether he’s on the co-main or the main [event]. Just put him on the card—people are still going to come watch. But when it comes to worldwide MMA and fans, everyone knows me and Imavov are the real main event.
“I just felt, being as we’re so close to a title, one of us is obviously going to move forward into that potential opportunity. That’s why I feel like we should have fought five rounds.”
Allen goes into UFC Paris on a seven-fight win streak, including four rear-naked choke submissions in a row against Krzysztof Jotko, André Muniz, Bruno Silva, and Paul Craig. In his last outing, Allen scored a split-decision victory over Chris Curtis, successfully avenging a loss to the ‘Action Man’ in December 2021.
