A middleweight rematch between Brendan Allen and Chris Curtis has been booked to headline an upcoming UFC Fight Night event after Allen’s original opponent withdrew.
The April 6 event set for the UFC APEX in Las Vegas was supposed to feature Allen taking on Marvin Vettori in a five-round main event, however Vettori officially pulled out of the matchup this week with an undisclosed injury.
The UFC announced Curtis as the official replacement Friday, more than two years after the 185-pounders met for the first time.
Curtis got his hand raised following a second-round technical knockout of Allen when the two fought on the main card of an APEX Fight Night in December 2021. It was the second loss of Allen’s UFC career – his other was a second-round TKO to Curtis’s teammate and former champion Sean Strickland three fights prior.
The 28-year-old Allen has railed off six consecutive wins since facing Curtis. Five of those wins were submissions and three earned him a Performance of the Night bonus.
Curtis’s win over Allen was the type of outing that earned him the nickname “Action Man” but the 36-year-old is only 3-2 with one no-contest in his six bouts since then. Curtis is coming off a split decision win over Marc-André Barriault at UFC 297 in Toronto in January and is looking for consecutive wins for the first time in nearly two years.
Allen has leapfrogged Curtis in the rankings during his streak and is currently the No. 6-ranked contender at 185 pounds. He was attempting to take Vettori’s spot in the top five; Vettori is ranked No. 5, while Curtis sits at No. 14.
The complete lineup for the April 6 event has not yet been finalized.
