Brendan Allen has voiced his frustration with how Sean Strickland is handling himself in the lead-up to his latest middleweight title shot.
Strickland’s knockout win over Allen back in November 2020 seems to have aged well, especially now that he’s about to step into his third world title bout, this time against Khamzat Chimaev at UFC 328. That victory set him on a path that eventually led to a championship opportunity in 2023 — one he made the most of.
Allen, who has been working alongside Chimaev’s team ahead of Saturday’s event in Newark, hasn’t held back in sharing his feelings about the matchup. There doesn’t seem to be much respect left between the two since their fight nearly four years ago.
Brendan Allen criticises Sean Strickland ahead of UFC 328
Brendan Allen, ranked fourth in the division, spoke out against Sean Strickland in a recent interview with Submission Radio. He’s still interested in a rematch after their first meeting on short notice and isn’t impressed by the former champion’s approach to trash talk.
Speaking to the YouTube channel, Allen said: “He’s always talking about dudes getting f—ed and stuff, it’s weird… Everyone talks about him catching me and TKOing me what was it? Six years ago or whatever? Like, I was 24, I’m 30 now.
“Let’s see how it goes now? I think he got lucky that night, I made a stupid error and he got it, it is what it is. It happened but I still think nine times out of ten I beat him there but that’s how the game works, we don’t get nine times, we get one night and he got it, it is what it is.”
Allen also mentioned that Team Chimaev just laughed off Strickland’s threats of violence during fight week. He added: “He just sounds r—––. Like, ‘alright bro, y’all are going to fight on Saturday let’s see if you’re talking all that s— then’.
“Because you weren’t talking that s— when y’all trained. You were shouting across the room at Eric [Nicksick] saying how he’s a bad coach for putting you with him. But we don’t want to talk about that do we?”
“We don’t want to talk about guys that watched the sparring and training saying that you got tapped out or made to quit or whatever. Nobody wants to talk about those things. So we just think as a team his coaches and everyone let him talk.”
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