Brendan Allen was dealing with a lot more than high stakes ahead of his big main event bout this past Saturday in Las Vegas.
Allen faced fellow surging middleweight contender Christian Leroy Duncan in the UFC Vegas 122 headliner at the Meta APEX. In a back-and-forth battle, Allen was able to get the victory with a fifth-round rear-naked choke submission to earn his fourth straight win.
There were moments in the fight where Allen looked like he couldn’t get out of first gear, and Allen’s teammate and friend Belal Muhammad shared why that could’ve been — revealing Allen entered fight week with a gnarly staph infection and had to compete on antibiotics. Check out the image below, which was shown in the original Twitter post, but then switched out with a different photo.
What people don’t know is Brendan was dealing with a staph infection since Tuesday of fight week. Had to get on antibiotics, still has 5 days left on them, and despite all that adversity, went out there and got the finish. Never complained, never made excuses, just found a way to… pic.twitter.com/e4jgnQAuWx
— Belal Muhammad (@bullyb170) October 11, 2026
“What people don’t know is Brendan was dealing with a staph infection since Tuesday of fight week,” Muhammad wrote. “Had to get on antibiotics, still has 5 days left on them, and despite all that adversity, went out there and got the finish. Never complained, never made excuses, just found a way to win. That’s the heart of a champion. Proud of my brother.”
Allen called for a fight with former champion Dricus du Plessis following the victory. Duncan’s five-fight win streak came to an end during his game showing in his first UFC headliner.