Brendan Allen tells Marvin Vettori to 'grow up,' recalls casino brawl ahead of UFC 318
NEW ORLEANS – Brendan Allen and Marvin Vettori are set to run things back this Saturday, although officially it will be the first time they meet.
The two UFC middleweight contenders clash on the preliminary card of UFC 318 (pay-per-view, ESPN, ESPN+), which takes place at Smoothie King Center in New Orleans. The two men have plenty of history – a failed booking in April 2024 and a brawl after a PFL event last August.
Speaking to reporters just days away from their bad-blood bout, Allen (24-7 MMA, 12-4 UFC) recalled his viral fight with Vettori (19-7-1 MMA, 9-6-1 UFC) on the casino floor of the Hard Rock in Hollywood, Fla.
"Basically I was there with my wife and some friends and teammates. We were supporting teammates for PFL, and it was time to go," Allen said on Wednesday at UFC 318 media day. "I was leaving, and I heard people the whole night say he was looking for me, and my response was always, 'I'm not hard to find. I'm pretty easy to find.'"
Allen exited the Hard Rock Live venue and into the hotel's casino, and that's when he first saw Vettori, who was getting aggressive with UFC light heavyweight Tuco Tokkos – Allen's friend and teammate.
"On the way out of the door of the arena and into the Hard Rock (casino), I look and my friend Tucco is getting swung on by Marvin," Allen said. "At first he's telling him, like you could see him do this (putting up his hands) like, 'Calm down, chill. We're not doing that.'"
According to Allen, one of his teammates pushed back Vettori, and that's when Allen rushed his rival. However, there were plenty of people present, and he was held back before he could get to Vettori
"He ends up somehow creeping around the crowd and coming back behind me, and obviously there's 40, 50 people, and I lose track of him, and people are grabbing me," Allen said. "Lucky, he goes to swing around me and my boy Tuco smacks his hand as he's swinging at me, and my boy Tuco ends up hitting me because of the force and everything."
Allen claims Vettori circled back around for a second shot, and that's when the most viral angle of the brawl began. In the video, you could see UFC lightweight Michael Johnson, who also competes at UFC 318, get the crowd to make space, setting up an impromptu arena for Allen and Vettori, who were left standing across each other.
"He's looking at me dead in my eyes, as you can see from the camera angles," Allen explained. "... He's looking at me in my eyes, he puts his hands up, and what do you do? You walk away, and you're a b*tch, or you walk over there and hit him? I walked over there and hit him."
Allen is not looking to extend his beef with Vettori beyond Saturday. He'd be more than willing to squash their differences as he sees the feud as childish.
"It's like grow up, man," Allen said. "I'm almost 30 years old, and I have all those kids over there. I'm not trying to act stupid, and that was the whole point. Apparently he got mad at me because I said one of his fights was sh*t. It was like, 'Man, it takes two to fight. So if I called your fight sh*t, it's both of you guys. It's not just one.' I've had sh*t fights. If I'm saying it to me as a fighter, imagine how many other people you're going to hear it from. If that's what you got mad at, alright, bro."
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