Brendan Allen is four wins deep into his middleweight run, and he made it five rounds of work to get this one. The No. 4-ranked contender choked out No. 10-ranked Christian Leroy Duncan late in the fifth round to headline UFC Fight Night: Allen vs. Duncan at the UFC Apex in Las Vegas. Below is what happened in every one of the 12 fights on the card.
The Main Event
Duncan had the better of long stretches on the feet in Allen vs. Duncan and survived a second-round point deduction for an accidental eye poke, but Allen kept chasing takedowns all night. He finally dragged Duncan down late, took his back, and forced the tap with a rear-naked choke at 2:46 of the fifth round.
It's Allen's fourth straight win and pushes him further into the thick of the middleweight title picture at No. 4 in the rankings. For Duncan, it snaps a five-fight winning streak and a run that had him climbing toward a ranked opponent of his own — a tough way to find out he's not quite there yet.
The Rest of the Main Card
Jai Herbert def. Matheus Camilo, decision (unanimous), round 3. Herbert's veteran craft was enough to out-point Camilo over three rounds. All three judges scored the lightweight bout 29-28 for Herbert, who moves to back-to-back wins while snapping Camilo's two-fight winning streak.
Lupita Godinez def. Ketlen Souza, decision (unanimous), round 3. Godinez bounced back from her first career stoppage loss with a clean, unanimous verdict over Souza in the women's strawweight bout. She got the job done despite Souza missing the strawweight limit by a pound during fight week.
Andre Fili def. Kai Kamaka III, KO/TKO (head kick), round 2, 0:22. Fili snapped his two-fight skid in spectacular fashion, rocking Kamaka with a left hook before detonating a right head kick on his jaw just 22 seconds into round two. The finish eases the pressure Fili was facing on his long-tenured UFC roster spot.
Otari Tanzilovi def. Malcolm Wellmaker, KO/TKO (head kick), round 2. Tanzilovi survived an early scare — Wellmaker hurt him with a hard shot in round one — before coming back firing, dropping the favored Wellmaker with a right head kick and following up with punches until the fight was stopped. It's Wellmaker's third straight loss and Tanzilovi's first UFC win.
The Prelims
Seven preliminary fights rounded out the card.
| Fight | Winner | Method |
|---|---|---|
| Walker vs. Meerschaert | Julius Walker | KO/TKO (punches), round 2, 3:35 |
| Prado vs. Bonfim | Francisco Prado | KO/TKO (punches), round 1, 4:23 |
| Price vs. Shahbazyan | Niko Price | KO/TKO (punches), round 1, 1:58 |
| Franco vs. Ribeiro | Brendson Ribeiro | Submission (guillotine choke), round 1, 1:49 |
| Frye vs. Harris | Allen Frye Jr. | KO/TKO (punches), round 1, 2:59 |
| Pereira vs. Zheleznyakova | Alice Pereira | TKO (elbows), round 1, 5:00 |
| Gatto vs. Kareckaitė | Draw (majority) | Decision, round 3 |
Julius Walker had the better of the fight on the feet throughout and worked Gerald Meerschaert to a second-round stoppage — notable because Meerschaert pulled off his gloves afterward in an apparent signal that he's retiring following his sixth straight loss. Francisco Prado finally broke through, scoring an early takedown on an overweight Ismael Bonfim and raining down punches until the referee stepped in; Bonfim had missed the lightweight limit and forfeited a quarter of his purse. Niko Price made his planned retirement fight a short one, blitzing Leon Shahbazyan with punches for a first-round stoppage, though he has not committed to actually walking away after the win.
Brendson Ribeiro snapped a four-fight skid with a sudden guillotine on the heavily favored Felipe Franco, catching his neck as Franco shot for a takedown. Allen Frye Jr. answered his first pro loss with a violent finish of RJ Harris, backing him up with combinations before a flurry of right hands ended it. Alice Pereira opened a gruesome cut on Darya Zheleznyakova's forehead with a ground-and-pound elbow late in round one, and Zheleznyakova told the referee she didn't want to continue after the horn — a dominant finish in just Pereira's third UFC appearance at 20 years old. The card opener between Melissa Gatto and Ernesta Kareckaitė ended in a majority draw after a first-round point deduction for a fence grab wiped out what otherwise read as a Kareckaitė-leaning fight; the scores came back 28-28, 28-28, and 29-27 for Gatto.
What It Means
Allen's fourth straight finish keeps him squarely in the middleweight conversation at No. 4, and a five-round grind against a game, well-ranked opponent is exactly the kind of resume line that argues for a step up. Duncan's five-fight streak is over, but losing a close, competitive main event to a top-5 contender is not the kind of result that should push him far down the pecking order. Elsewhere on the card, Andre Fili's highlight-reel finish and Niko Price's short-notice stoppage were the two biggest "welcome back" moments of the night. Full fighter breakdowns, records, and the pre-fight matchup notes for every bout are on the event page.