Way to settle the score! Monster Energy congratulates MMA athlete Brendan Allen on defeating Chris Curtis at the UFC Fight Night 240 in Las Vegas. In the event’s headline fight, contested in the UFC’s middleweight division, the 28-year-old mixed martial artist from Beaufort, South Carolina, battled for five rounds to edge out a split decision victory (47-48, 48-47, 49-46).
UFC Fight Night: Allen vs. Curtis 2, also known as UFC Fight Night 240, was contested in front of a live crowd at the UFC Apex facility in Las Vegas. With five fights on the Main Card and seven fights on the Preliminary Card, the event was broadcast live to fans on the ESPN+ platform.
Monster Energy’s Allen (24-5) came to Vegas on a seven-fight win streak after recently defeating Paul Craig via rear-naked choke submission at UFC Fight Night 232 in November 2023, earning a Performance of the Night award for the victory. Allen had faced Curtis in 2021 and suffered a knockout defeat, so he was hungry to settle the score.
In his most recent fight, 36-year-old Curtis (31-11) from Cincinnati, Ohio, defeated Canadian Marc-André Barriault via split decision at UFC 297 in January 2024. Curtis took the rematch against Allen on short notice after the initially slated Marvin Vettori withdrew from the fight on March 14. This set the stage for the Allen versus Curtis rematch.
From the start, both fighters held no punches in Saturday night’s headline bout. The fight mostly unfolded on the feet, with Curtis drawing on his boxing to land heavy strikes and Allen returning fire with precise punches and punishing elbows.
But ultimately, it was Allen who secured critical takedowns and proceeded to dominate his opponent by taking the back and locking in body triangles. Over the course of the 25-minute fight, Allen was able to convert six of 13 takedown attempts to assert his control.
A decisive moment in round three saw Allen dominating Curtis from the top and pressuring to lock in several rear-naked choke submissions. Curtis narrowly escaped and continued to throw punches but was slowed down by a hamstring injury toward the end of round five. In the final seconds of the fight, Allen hit Curtis with a flying knee against the side of the cage to inflict more damage.
After a relentless 25-minute battle, the judges announced Allen the winner by split decision (47-48, 48-47, 49-46).
“I thought I won the fight. I didn’t think it was a split decision,” said Monster Energy’s Allen upon winning UFC Fight Night 240. “No matter, I’ve got a lot of love and respect for Chris. He’s a great human, a great fighter. He stepped up on short notice when nobody else would. That’s my guy.”
Looking ahead, Allen called for a shot at the middleweight division belt against reigning champion Dricus Du Plessis. “Where’s that title shot? Nobody’s got the streak I’ve got!”
Allen is currently on an eight-fight win streak in the UFC and has not lost a fight since facing Curtis in 2021. The South Carolina native became a professional MMA athlete in 2015. Before making his UFC debut in 2019, he competed in the Legacy Fighting Alliance, where he is a former Middleweight Champion.
Brendan Allen counts amongst Monster Energy’s elite UFC athletes along with Kamaru Usman, Jon Jones, Chris Weidman, Rose Namajunas, Marlon Vera, Michael Chandler, Justin Gaethje, Yair Rodriguez, Jessica-Rose Clark, Valentina Shevchenko, Brandon Moreno, Daniel Rodriguez, Punahele Soriano, Gilbert Burns, Giga Chikadze, Islam Makhachev, Johnny Walker, Beneil Dariush, Gaston Bolanos, Jalin Turner, Sean Strickland, Zhang Weili, Raul Rosas Jr., Dan Ige, Diego Lopes, Alex Pereira, Daniel Zellhuber, Derrick Lewis, Belal Muhammad and Cameron Saaiman.
For more on Monster Energy’s MMA athletes, visit www.monsterenergy.com. Follow Monster Energy on YouTube, Facebook, Instagram, Twitter and TikTok.
