The matchup paired two men sitting just outside the title picture: Allen, the experienced grappler at 28-7, against Duncan, the rising English finisher who entered as a slight underdog. It went deep into the championship rounds before Allen took Duncan’s back and closed the choke in the fifth, earning a performance bonus and the most important win of his current run. He used the microphone to call out the division’s elite, and with champion Sean Strickland’s next defence still being finalised and Khamzat Chimaev occupied with wrestling bookings through November, a four-fight streak capped by a fifth-round finish over a top-10 opponent is a strong argument to be next in line. Duncan, now 15-3, lasted into the final round against one of the division’s most dangerous grapplers and remains a fixture of the rankings.
The co-main event produced an upset on the scorecards. Jai Herbert, a +165 underdog, outpointed Matheus Camilo by unanimous decision, 29-28 on all three cards, in their lightweight bout. Loopy Godinez took a unanimous decision over Ketlen Souza by the same scores in a strawweight bout contested at a 117-pound catchweight after Souza missed weight.
Then the head kicks arrived. Andre Fili opened the main card by knocking out Kai Kamaka III with a head kick just 22 seconds into the second round, and Otari Tanzilovi matched him with a second-round head-kick knockout of Malcolm Wellmaker at 2:39, the Georgian’s first UFC win and an emphatic way to earn it. Both finishes, along with Allen’s submission, drew performance bonuses.
The preliminary card was a near-unbroken run of stoppages. Julius Walker earned his first UFC finish, stopping veteran Gerald Meerschaert with punches at 3:35 of the second round at light heavyweight. Francisco Prado stopped Ismael Bonfim with punches at 4:23 of the first round, and Niko Price, in a win that clearly meant a great deal to him, stopped Leon Shahbazyan in 1:58. Brendson Ribeiro choked out Felipe Franco with a guillotine at 1:49 of the first, and heavyweight Allen Frye Jr. stopped RJ Harris at 2:59 of the first. Alice Pereira, the fourth bonus winner of the night, beat Daria Zhelezniakova by TKO when the fight was stopped at the end of the first round. Bonfim, Souza and Ribeiro all missed weight ahead of the event and forfeited portions of their purses.
The only fight without a winner was the women’s flyweight opener, where Ernesta Kareckaite and Melissa Gatto were ruled a majority draw.
The broader takeaway belongs to the main event. Middleweight’s top tier has rarely been more congested, with Strickland, Chimaev, Dricus du Plessis and Nassourdine Imavov all occupying the conversation above him, but Allen has now strung together four straight wins and finished the latest in the championship rounds. Saturday did not hand him a title shot. It did make him hard to ignore.
