Brendan Allen was not impressed by Reinier de Ridder’s performance.
The MMA world remains stunned over the main event of UFC Vancouver. Brendan Allen absolutely dominated Reinier de Ridder. The UFC Middleweight was in dire trouble in the first round, but Allen managed to rebound and get control of the fight for the next three rounds.
Ultimately, Ridder didn’t finish the fight because his coach threw in the towel for him. Ridder’s coach has already explained why as he felt that it was important to protect his fighter. Ridder just came out with a statement where he knows he didn’t put on his best performance and plans to take some time away from the octagon.
However, Allen wasn’t surprised over what happened on Saturday. He knew that was going to break the former ONE Champion.
“I said I was going to [break him],” Allen told MMA Fighting. “There’s something somewhere, I don’t know where I saw it, an edit someone made or maybe even my guy made it, I don’t even know. I don’t really remember but it was literally word for word what I said when the UFC came to Chicago during the camp. Literally, word for word, exactly what happened. It doesn’t get much better than that.”
Allen recalls a similar situation that he was in. Though he can’t understand how Ridder didn’t answer the bell for the final round as he feels that the middleweight needs to search for his soul.
“Every man’s got to look in the mirror, right?” Allen said. “Everyone’s got to search their own soul. That one’s on him. He’s got to look himself in the mirror. If he’s all right with it, god bless him. I know for me, I have to answer the bell. I can clearly remember having it was my second ever adrenaline dump when I fought Trevin Giles so long ago. I could barely even stand at the end of the round.
“I gassed, he turned in on me and beat me up in my guard and trying to go for legs and he beat me up. I couldn’t even really stand between rounds but still I walked out and threw like a flying knee or something and he literally just pushed me and I fell over. Didn’t punch me, literally pushed me, not hard and I fell over. We still scrambled a little bit more and he got like a rear-naked [choke] but it wasn’t even on my throat. It was over my mouth and I couldn’t breathe and I panicked and I tapped. I went to breathe and nothing was coming in. I remember afterwards, I was scared in the moment to be honest with you. I never had that happen before.”
Allen shared that his father would disown him if quit on the stool like Ridder did. Thats just something he can’t ever fathom doing as he refuses to let his team down.
“I’d rather that, get knocked out something. I’m not going to quit on the stool,” Allens aid. “I can’t quit on my team like that. We work so hard. I think my dad would disown me, too, if I did that to be honest. He’s different. I don’t know, I can’t do that. I don’t want my kids to see that. We follow through no matter what. I signed up to go in there. I signed up to be in that position, to do what I do, to put on a show for the fans, to give a good name to the promotion, to all the guys that gave me the opportunity.
“So I’m not going to let them down by quitting on the stool. Like I said, I’m not scared to get knocked out. I’m not scared to get tapped. I’ve had it both happen. For me personally, that’s all I can speak on and that’s where I stand and I know because I’ve been tested to say that’s what I would do.”