UFC Fight Night: Brendan Allen seals redemption over Chris Curtis with battling split-decision victory

Brendan Allen avenged his defeat to Chris Curtis three years ago with victory over his compatriot at UFC Fight Night in Las Vegas on Saturday.

After an entertaining, hard-fought five-round war in the middleweight division, Allen won by split decision to seal his eighth consecutive win after suffering a shock defeat to Curtis in December 2021.

The judges scored 48-47, 47-48, 49-46 in favour of ‘All In’ Allen, despite Curtis producing more total strikes (141-128), more significant strikes (124-112), as well as strikes to the head (96-72).

In the final 30 seconds of the fight, Curtis suffered a leg injury - reportedly tearing his hamstring - and left the arena on a stretcher.

Allen had won five of his last six fights with a rear-naked choke finish and he looked for one in the opening round, but Curtis defended well and managed to hold off the early threat.

After a couple of scrappy rounds, Allen tried the finishing move again but Curtis comfortably fended it off before Allen landed an elbow strike in the final seconds of the third round.

Allen took Curtis to the floor twice in the fourth round but could not take advantage in the two big moments as the latter fought back, despite the momentum starting to shift in favour of Allen.

The fifth round proved decisive. In another takedown attempt from Allen, Curtis seemed to hurt his leg as he dodged the scramble.

Allen then launched a flying knee up against the cage to inflict more damage on the 36-year-old, who was hurt but managed to hold on to take the decision to the judges.

The fight went right down to the wire, but Allen emerged victorious to end a three-year wait for revenge over Curtis.

Elsewhere, Damon Jackson beat Alexander Hernandez in the co-main event after three rounds to seal the featherweight bout.

In the same division, Chepe Mariscal’s controversial split decision victory over Morgan Charriere was named ‘Fight of the Night’ by the UFC.

In the lightweight division, Ignacio Bahamondes beat Christos Giagos while Charlie Campbell edged Trevor Peek.

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