UFC Vegas 90 went down this past weekend (Sat. April 6, 2024) inside UFC Apex in Las Vegas, Nevada, leaving several fighters feeling the post-fight blues. Among them was Christos Giagos, who was knocked out by Ignacio Bahamondes (see it again here).
And Alexander Hernandez, who suffered his second straight defeat after coming up short to Damon Jackson, losing a razor-thin split decision. But, which fighter is suffering from the worst post-fight hangover, now a few days removed from the show?
Coming into his short-notice rematch against Brendan Allen, Curtis had no pressure on his shoulders whatsoever. After all, he took the fight on short notice after Marvin Vettori bowed out of the fight with a “freak accident.” Furthermore, “Action Man” had already defeated Allen three years ago (watch highlights), so he had the blueprint to victory in his possession.
But, after 25 minutes of back-and-forth action, Curtis came up short, dropping a split decision after a hard-fought battle. To make matters worse for “Action Man,” he wound up suffering a torn hamstring as the five-round fight concluded. After the bout, Curtis was quick to give Allen his props, but also took a shot at the judges for their scoring.
“Been a while guys — Thank you all for the love and support. Not the result I hoped for,” he wrote on X. “Thought we had it but that’s life. Brendan Allen it was an honor to scrap again, and the score stands at 1-1 bro. Rest up and enjoy your family man. As for me, back to the drawing board.
“Watched it back four times now,” he added. “This one is going to sting for awhile. Not mad at Brendan. He didn’t score the fight. But yeah… that was a huge opportunity. I made mistakes, but I thought I did enough. This one hurts.”
Nevertheless, despite coming up short, Curtis will not lose any steam because he put it all on the line and did UFC a solid by stepping up to fight despite being “unprepared and out of shape,” according to his teammate and former Middleweight champion, Sean Strickland.
As far as what could be next for Curtis, that is tough to predict because his immediate challenge will be to recover from his injury, which — depending on the severity — could sideline him for awhile. When he’s ready to return, he should still be ranked in the Top 15 (he currently sits at No. 14).
Future opponents are also tough to pinpoint because of the uncertainty of his injury, but I wouldn’t mind seeing a fight between he and Paul Craig — whose last loss also came to Allen — at some point in time.
For complete UFC Vegas 90 results, coverage and highlights click HERE.