Brendan Allen shrugs off criticism from ‘irrelevant’ Marvin Vettori

Brendan Allen was supposed to fight Marvin Vettori at UFC Vegas 90, but now it looks like the matchup will never happen.

At least not if Allen has any say in the matter.

Vettori withdrew from Saturday’s main event due to an injury, resulting in Chris Curtis replacing him on short notice. Curtis defeated Allen in December 2021, but Allen avenged that loss at UFC Vegas 90 via split decision following a five-round classic.

Following the win, Vettori took a few social media shots at Allen and the streaking middleweight contender was asked for a response at the evening’s post-fight press conference.

“He’s irrelevant,” Allen said. “He can’t even make it to a fight. He don’t want to fight. He can go on, he’s old news. We’re going up. Pillow fists. He could have got the business tonight, he could have got it this week, he could have gotten it in Miami. What? You want to talk now?

“The only time the dude wants to talk is when there’s people in between us. It’s that simple. We were prepping for him. We came and we got an even better, more technical guy, that’s better than him at what he does and puts people away. Who’s he put away? Get the f*** out of here. We ain’t worried about f****** Marvin.”

Allen’s win made it seven straight victories for him, with his previous four all coming by way of submission. “All In” has soared up the rankings since his losing to Curtis in their first meeting and though he’s not lobbying for a title shot, he’s confident that he can defeat whoever holds the belt should he get a chance.

He expects to continue climbing the charts, even without having fought the higher-ranked Vettori.

“I should be No. 5 next week,” Allen said. “You can’t stay in your position f****** not fighting. The guy above me ain’t fought in a year and a half, whatever. He was supposed to fight tonight, he backed out because of his shoulder, which we knew before, welcome to Florida. You can’t win the war if you don’t make it to the war. You can’t talk s*** if you don’t make it to the war that you were supposed to come to. Simple as that. I’m here in Vegas, so what? Come see me.”

Vettori has alternated wins and losses in his past six fights, but holds notable wins over Roman Dolidze, Paulo Costa, and Jack Hermansson. He also previously challenged Israel Adesanya for the middleweight title, so “The Italian Dream” has established himself as a top contender in the 185-pound division.

None of Vettori’s previous accomplishments, nor his taunts mean much to Allen. If there’s ever to be a reckoning between the two, Allen is fine with it happening outside of the cage.

“At the end of the day, I don’t care about none of this, I’m a man,” Allen said. “You said—for Marvin—you said explicitly on media that when you saw me you were going to beat my ass. You saw me, only thing you said was, ‘What’s up, man? What’s up, man?’ I didn’t say a word to you, nothing. I see you again, [you said] ‘Why you looking at me like that?’ I put my bag down to walk towards you, you stepped behind someone. The only time he wants to do something is when it’s in front of people, so I don’t give a f***. If you see me, stand behind what you say. If you’re a man, stand behind what you say. That’s my problem. I never said anything about him, what, he said I said something on Twitter. Come on, bro, everyone’s talking on Twitter. He’s talking on Twitter right now. It’s Twitter, whatever.

“If you feel that way, keep the same energy when you see me in person. You’ve seen me multiple times. I’m about whatever, I don’t care. I ain’t going to start nothing, but I ain’t no b***** and I ain’t going to run away from it. So at the end of the day, that’s the only thing left I have to say to Marvin. We’re not going to fight unless you want to fight me here, at my gym, whatever. You’re behind me, you had your chance twice. You could have fought me last year, you could have fought me tonight. I prepared, I showed up, I saved the card with Chris. So that’s the last thing I’ll say regarding Marvin. Say what you want, talk what you want. When you see me, do something if you really about it.”