Brendan Allen thinks Dricus Du Plessis‘ success is a product of good timing.
Du Plessis (24-3 MMA, 10-1 UFC) put on a striking clinic against former welterweight champion Kamaru Usman (21-5 MMA, 16-4 UFC) in Saturday’s UFC Fight Night 281 headliner at Paycom Center in Oklahoma City.
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Allen (27-7 MMA, 15-4 UFC) discredited Du Plessis’ win, and thinks he caught Usman at the perfect timing.
“Usman is one of the best to ever do it at welterweight, but we’re still living off of that,” Allen said on the JAXXON PODCAST. “He’s almost 40 years old, up a weight class. You can tell the size difference. Usman probably didn’t cut but three or four pounds maybe. I don’t know. He looked slow. He looked stiff. It looks like he can’t train anymore. Everyone talks about his knees, but he says he’s good.
“That is not the same guy we used to see. You’ve got Dricus who’s sitting over here like, ‘I just beat Kamaru Usman. I beat (Israel Adesanya).’ You beat them at the end of their career. You didn’t beat them when they were in their prime, killing it. You’re not fighting these young, hungry guys. To me, he’s got the best matchups. I’ve tried to fight him since he got in the UFC.”
Allen said a fight with Du Plessis was in the works for earlier this year, and blames the former UFC middleweight champion for it not materializing. Allen ended up fighting unranked Edmen Shahbazyan instead at UFC Fight Night 278 in June, defeating him by unanimous decision.
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“For sure, and I’ve never said that about anybody,” Allen said on Du Plessis ducking him. “I’ve got over 40 fights, never said that about anyone – never. I hate that term, too. We were supposed to be good to go January. I was told we were set, we were done, good to go.
“I was told that all the way up till middle-end of February, and then everything started getting rocky. Next thing you know, it came out that Usman and him were fighting. It’s like he said yes to me, but he took – to me, it’s the easier fight. Kamaru’s older, he’s beat down, he’s coming up a weight class, he’s not as hungry.”
This article originally appeared on MMA Junkie: Brendan Allen: Dricus Du Plessis ducking me, sought ‘easier’ Kamaru Usman fight
