Brendan Allen Chokes Out Christian Duncan in the Fifth at UFC Vegas 122, Then Calls Out Du Plessis

SUNDAY, OCTOBER 11, 2026

Brendan Allen waited until the last possible moment to make his point. After four rounds of grinding, bloodied, increasingly one-sided work against Christian Leroy Duncan at the Meta APEX on Saturday night, Allen dragged the Englishman down early in the fifth, slid to his back like he was settling into his favorite chair, and locked in the rear-naked choke — his bread and butter, the hold that has made him one of the most feared grapplers at 185 pounds. Duncan tapped at 2:46, and the APEX roared for the hometown-adjacent fighter who trains under the Louisiana sun but fights like he was built for the desert. It was Allen’s fourth consecutive win, Duncan’s five-fight UFC win streak gone in his first main event, and the moment the middleweight picture got very interesting again.

02 The finish: patience, then a strangle at 2:46

There was no hesitation in the end. After a brief striking exchange to open Round 5, Allen changed levels, dragged Duncan to the canvas, and took his back before Duncan could set his hips. The choke went deep instantly — both MMA Junkie and LowKickMMA described the panic on Duncan’s face as unmistakable. He fought the hands for a few seconds, but Allen’s squeeze was the kind that doesn’t loosen. The tap came at 2:46, and Allen leapt to his feet with the certainty of a man who had been hunting that exact moment for twenty minutes.

It was the payoff for a patient kind of violence. Per LowKickMMA’s recap, Allen had spent the middle rounds making Duncan carry his weight, bloodied him, gassed him, and never once rushed recklessly for the kill. By the fifth, the Englishman had nothing left to stop the takedown, and once Allen had the back, the result felt pre-written. Duncan tried his best to get out, LowKickMMA wrote, but the pressure was extreme and he had to tap. A technical submission in all but name — there was no ambiguity about what happened in that cage.

The win moved Allen to 28-7 in MMA and 16-4 in the UFC, per MMA Junkie’s records. For Duncan (15-3 MMA, 8-3 UFC), it was the first main event of his career and the end of a five-fight run that had carried him to No. 10 at middleweight. Sometimes the jump from co-main to main is just the jump — and sometimes the jump eats you.

The night had been framed in our fight night preview as a gatekeeper-versus-gatecrasher matchup, with Duncan’s spinning attacks and chaos against Allen’s suffocation. What showed up was the third option: a little of both, in order. Duncan brought the chaos early. Allen brought the ending late.

03 From chaos to control: how the five rounds played out

Round 1 was the fight Duncan needed it to be. Per LowKickMMA’s recap, the Englishman came out chaotic from the start — sharp elbows in close, and a spinning attack that genuinely stunned Allen. The 30-year-old veteran stayed calm, scored a takedown, controlled on the ground and took Duncan’s back, but couldn’t sink the rear-naked choke before the horn. Close. Debatable. A round that reminded everyone why Duncan had won five straight and why Allen’s path to victory would have to go through real danger.

Round 2 changed everything, and it started with a foul. Just as the action got going, Duncan’s extended fingers found Allen’s eye, the fight paused, and referee Marc Goddard took a point — a deduction that immediately made every close round thereafter feel like a mountain for the underdog, per both MMA Junkie’s and LowKickMMA’s recaps. Duncan turned up his volume to compensate, but Allen answered by putting him on the mat and going to work: control time, an arm-triangle hunt, another run at the rear-naked choke, and, per LowKickMMA, a bloodying that made Duncan’s face look like the night was catching up with him. Allen made ’CLD’ carry his weight and gassed him out, in LowKickMMA’s telling — the classic grappler’s invoice.

Rounds 3 and 4 belonged to the same man. Allen controlled most of the action on the feet and on the ground, stayed calm when Duncan found moments, and stunned the Englishman a couple of times without ever lunging for a desperate finish. MMA Junkie noted a wild takedown scramble opening Round 3, with Allen battling to top position and Duncan briefly exploding out to land offense of his own; in Round 4, Allen stood and traded, marching forward, while Duncan circled off the fence landing strikes on the outside that scored but never stopped the pressure. By the end of the fourth, the fight was hanging on the final five minutes — and in the final five minutes, the fresher man was Allen by a mile. Deep water, as the old fight saying goes. Allen dragged Duncan there, and then he held him under.

04 The callout: Allen wants ’Dickus’ — and he’s earned the ask

Before the celebration had cooled, Allen made his case. In the post-fight interview, MMA Junkie reported, the 30-year-old first made his bid for a title shot — and if that isn’t in the cards, he named the man he wants next: former champion Dricus du Plessis. Allen told Michael Bisping, per MMA Junkie’s transcript: “Where’s the champion? If not, where’s ’Dickus’? He’s been running for a while.” The APEX laughed, then roared. Allen added, per the report, that if neither materializes, the belt should be put back up — a nod to the division’s logjam that any 185-pound contender understands in their bones.

It’s a smart call on every level. Du Plessis is the former champion who lost the crown and has been floating in the division’s conversation without a clear next date; Allen, riding four straight, now owns wins over Marvin Vettori, Reinier de Ridder and Edmen Shahbazyan, per MMA Junkie’s accounting of the streak. A former champion is exactly the kind of name that turns a streak into a title eliminator, and Allen’s grappling-first style is precisely the matchup puzzle du Plessis has historically answered with chaos and pressure. The middleweight division has been waiting on its next move at the top; Allen just cut the line and asked for the loudest possible dance partner.

The context matters here too. Allen came into this fight on a three-fight streak, per Heavy’s reporting — so this makes four, and the arc from contender-on-the-outside to undeniable is a real thing in this sport. The man who once watched the belt picture from several rungs down now has the kind of leverage where a callout gets picked up rather than ignored. Whether it’s du Plessis or a title shot, Allen’s Saturday night earned him the right to ask.

05 Co-main grit and two head-kick knockouts

The co-main was a quiet kind of career night. Jai Herbert outworked Matheus Camilo across three rounds to take a unanimous decision (29-28 on all three cards), and for the English veteran it was a milestone: his first back-to-back wins in the UFC, the first consecutive pair of his career since his Cage Warriors days. Camilo was the betting favorite, which makes the win the best of Herbert’s recent run — a steady, technical performance that asked the favorite questions he couldn’t answer.

Loopy Godinez took a unanimous decision (29-28 x3) over Ketlen Souza in a women’s strawweight bout that proceeded at catchweight after Souza missed the non-title limit at 117 pounds — a miss first flagged in our weigh-in coverage. Souza forfeited 20 percent of her purse for the miss, per FightBook MMA, and then spent fifteen minutes finding out what a technically sound grinder does to you when you’re already starting from behind. Godinez’s volume and control carried the night.

Then came the head kicks. Andre Fili needed just 22 seconds of Round 2 to flatline Kai Kamaka III — a single head kick, per MMA Junkie’s official results, that ended the featherweight bout and earned Fili a $100,000 Performance of the Night bonus. Otari Tanzilovi matched the energy against Malcolm Wellmaker, finishing the bantamweight bout at 2:39 of Round 2 — a head-kick TKO, per the official results — and claiming the same six-figure bonus. Two violent finishes, two checks, and a main card that gave the APEX crowd exactly what it came for.

06 The prelims: six finishes, one draw, and a first-round parade

The preliminary card was a conveyor belt of stoppages. Julius Walker TKO’d veteran Gerald Meerschaert with punches at 3:35 of the first round; Francisco Prado stopped Ismael Bonfim with punches at 4:23 of the first — Bonfim’s bout proceeding at catchweight after he missed the mark at 163.5 pounds on the scale and forfeited 25 percent of his purse, per FightBook MMA’s weigh-in records. Niko Price needed just 1:58 of the first to TKO Leon Shahbazyan with punches, and Brendson Ribeiro submitted Felipe Franco with a guillotine choke at 1:49 of Round 1 — Ribeiro’s bout also at catchweight after a 208.5-pound miss that cost him 20 percent of his purse. Allen Frye Jr. KO’d RJ Harris with punches at 2:59 of the first, and Alice Pereira stopped Daria Zhelezniakova via TKO when the corner called it on a cut at the end of Round 1 — a performance that also earned Pereira a $100,000 bonus.

The lone blemish on a night of finishes: Ernesta Kareckaite vs. Melissa Gatto ended in a majority draw, 29-27, 28-28, 28-28. Nobody got a finish, nobody got a win, and the women’s flyweight division will have to sort this one out another time.

For the record books, the full slate ran twelve bouts deep on Paramount+, with the main card starting at 8 PM ET / 5 PM PT — and for the UK night owls, TNT Sports carried it with the main event landing around 3 AM Sunday, per Combat Sports UK. Four of those twelve bouts were first-round stoppages on the prelims alone, which is the kind of math that makes a free Fight Night feel like a paid one.

Brendan Allen def. Christian Leroy Duncan via submission (rear-naked choke) at 2:46 of Round 5 — UFC Vegas 122 (UFC Fight Night 290), Meta APEX, Las Vegas, Saturday October 10, 2026. Loopy Godinez def. Ketlen Souza via unanimous decision (29-28 x3); Andre Fili def. Kai Kamaka III via KO (head kick) at 0:22 of R2; Otari Tanzilovi def. Malcolm Wellmaker via TKO (head kick) at 2:39 of R2. Julius Walker TKO’d Gerald Meerschaert (punches, 3:35 R1); Francisco Prado TKO’d Ismael Bonfim (4:23 R1); Niko Price TKO’d Leon Shahbazyan (1:58 R1); Brendson Ribeiro subbed Felipe Franco (guillotine, 1:49 R1); Allen Frye Jr. KO’d RJ Harris (2:59 R1); Alice Pereira TKO’d Daria Zhelezniakova (corner stoppage, cut, 5:00 R1); Ernesta Kareckaite vs. Melissa Gatto majority draw (29-27, 28-28, 28-28).