Brendan Allen never had interest in training with Reinier de Ridder, but his reasons go deeper than just some petty animosity between fighters.
Ahead of their main event showdown Saturday at UFC Vancouver, de Ridder explained he actually approached Allen about working together after he first arrived at Kill Cliff FC in Florida. His request was denied, but Allen says his problem with the whole situation wasn’t about de Ridder but rather a common courtesy that wasn’t extended to him by the coaches and trainers at the gym.
“To be honest, I got asked for every middleweight that wanted to come to our gym,” Allen told MMA Fighting. “I was asked, ‘Hey, are you cool with it?’ Like [Nassourdine] Imavov came to the gym, they asked me before we were supposed to even fight, I was yeah for sure, it would be cool to have a new look. Then we fight, he stayed where he was at and then after he was like, ‘Hey do you mind if I come?’ The team even asked me, ‘Hey, do you mind if [he] comes?’ No, cool, I appreciate the respect.
“Never was asked nothing for [de Ridder]. Never. I was like alright f*ck me? Well f*ck you, too. How about that? Not towards him but towards whoever made that call.”
To be clear, Allen’s frustration was pointed more towards the team than de Ridder personally. However, the issue remained that no one showed him the common courtesy about another UFC middleweight training right beside him.
Add to that, Allen was already close with a number of 185-pound fighters competing in the UFC and he didn’t want to add another to that list.
“For me, I have enough friends in this division,” Allen said. “I have guys that I won’t fight unless they say my name. If they say my name, then we’re going to get it and they all know that from the very beginning. For gold, I’ll fight anyone in the world.
“So with that being said, I’m not your friend, don’t want to be your friend. I’m not going to disrespect you. If you disrespect me, then we’ll have that problem. I’m not going to help you, I don’t want your help for me. That’s kind of the way I looked at it. I know eventually we were going to fight because I had been asking for him since he came to the UFC, before he was even training there.”
As far as how Kill Cliff FC handled the situation, Allen wasn’t happy with how the situation was handled and it left a sour taste in his mouth.
“Yeah it did [bother me] but to be honest when you’ve been around the game a long enough time, you kind of expect certain things from certain people,” Allen said. “You just learn people are people. They’re going to do what they want for the most part. The majority are going to do what benefits them in the long run. It is what it is. It’s business. I just try to keep it as that.
“Some people have said, ‘Well, he moved his whole family down here.’ Well, it’s not my problem. As insensitive or however you want to classify that, that’s not my problem. To me, I was the king of that gym or one of them, if not the top dog, I was one of the damn top dogs. Whatever. Business move for them. It is what it is.”
The relationship Allen shared with some of the coaches and fighters there changed after de Ridder’s arrival and eventually Allen chose a change of scenery anyways.
There isn’t necessarily bad blood, but Allen confessed prior to his win over Marvin Vettori in July that he needed a fresh start, which is what happened when he went to Chicago to work alongside former UFC champion Belal Muhammad and his team.
“I’m one of those guys, I’m kind of like gang-gang. I’m loyal to my friends, especially the ones I’m close with,” Allen said. “Maybe I’m too loyal at some points but Aung La [N Sang] fought him twice and lost and had those emotions and the things that come with a loss. At the time, he was my good friend. He would come over to Tuco [Tokkos’s] house where I was staying, we would go over to his house, knew his wife, his kids. He knew my wife, my kids. It started from there. Like all right [de Ridder] beat him, now if I get the opportunity, I’m going to f*ck you up. [De Ridder] beat my friend Gerald [Meerschaert] in a close fight, he got tired, whatever, which I’ve known Gerald for a long time. Now if I ever get the opportunity, I’m going to show you.
“But then he comes to Kill Cliff and many guys are buddy-buddy with him and stuff. That’s just not me. I’m not fake. You ask me a question, I’m going to tell you how I feel. You like it, you don’t like it, I don’t really care, you asked me the question and I have the right to my opinion, even if it’s wrong according to someone else.”
When it comes to the fight itself, Allen was more than ready to step into the main event after Anthony “Fluffy” Hernandez suffered an injury that forced him to drop off the card.
Allen has eyed a potential showdown against de Ridder for some time and now he gets his chance to prove what he says he’s known all along.
“[He’s] nothing impressive,” Allen said. “It’s nothing like where you see a guy and you’re like that guy’s talented or he’s got something, whatever that ‘it’ is. I don’t see none of that from him.”
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