Brendan Allen to face new opponent in June after Jack Hermansson fight falls through
UFC middleweight Brendan Allen's scheduled main event against Jack Hermansson at UFC on ESPN 45 was canceled after Hermansson withdrew due to injury. Allen will now fight on the UFC Jacksonville card later in June.
Allen will face Bruno Silva at UFC Fight Night: Emmett vs. Topuria on June 24 at the VyStar Veterans Memorial Arena in Jacksonville, Florida. MMA Mania was the first to report on the fight, with Alex Behunin tweeting about the upcoming matchup.
Check out his tweet below:
Brendan Allen is on a four-fight winning streak, with his latest victory coming over No.15-ranked middleweight Andre Muniz with an impressive rear-naked choke submission. Interestingly, Allen has employed rear-naked choke submissions in three of his last four wins. A win against Silva could bump him up the rankings even further and perhaps land him a top-10 opponent.
Bruno Silva won his last fight against Brad Tavares at UFC Fight Night: Pavlovich vs. Blaydes with a first-round knockout. The win earned him a $50,000 Performance of the Night bonus and also got him back to winning ways.
He had not enjoyed the best of form coming into that fight and had lost the previous two bouts before. One of those losses came against former middleweight champ Alex Pereira at UFC Fight Night: Santos vs. Ankalaev in a close matchup.
Silva will hope to hold his own against Allen and build on his last win to break into the UFC middleweight rankings.
Brendan Allen vs. Jack Hermansson's canceled fight leads to first non-title UFC flyweight main event since 2017
Brendan Allen and Jack Hermansson's UFC on ESPN 45 main event cancelation thrust another fight on the card into the spotlight. The scheduled flyweight fight between Kai Kara-France and Amir Albazi was promoted to the headliner fight, making it the first non-title UFC flyweight main event since 2017.
Many think the UFC has not shown enough love for its flyweight division and that it remains one of the more neglected ones amongst all male divisions. The last non-title main event fight was way back in 2017 when Sergio Pettis faced off against current champion Brandon Moreno.
Kara-France announced his excitement for his upcoming main event fight on Twitter, writing:
“I’ve just found out that my next fight, I’m the headline now. It’s five rounds! I’m gonna go out there and remind everyone why I’m the best in the world.”