UFC's Brendan Allen, Marvin Vettori Brawl on Video at Casino After PFL Fights
Mike Chiari@@mikechiari
Featured Columnist IVAugust 17, 2024
Video of UFC fighters Brendan Allen and Marvin Vettori getting into a brawl at a casino following a Professional Fighters League event on Friday night hit social media early Saturday morning.
The video shows Allen swinging at Vettori, who appeared to fall into a roulette table as a result:
Alex Behunin of MMA Mania reported that Vettori initially took a swing at UFC fighter Tuco Tokkos and missed, which led to Allen stepping in and going after Vettori.
The incident reportedly occurred at Seminole Hard Rock Hotel and Casino in Hollywood, Florida, which was the site of the 2024 PFL Playoffs: Light Heavyweights & Lightweights event.
In a post on X, Vettori claimed that what was caught on video occurred after he thought the scrap was already over:
Allen, 28, is a rising star in UFC, having won seven consecutive fights. The South Carolina native made his UFC debut as part of Dana White's Contender Series in 2019, and he has compiled a career professional record of 24-5 with 14 wins by way of submission.
Vettori is a 30-year-old fighter from Italy who has been with UFC since 2016, debuting with a win over Alberto Uda at UFC 202.
He is 19-7 with nine submission victories but has struggled recently, losing two of his past three fights and three of his past five.
Vettori is perhaps best known for twice facing Israel Adesanya. He lost to Adesanya by split decision in 2018 and then lost to him again by unanimous decision in a UFC middleweight title match in 2021.
Per MMA Junkie's Matthew Wells, Allen and Vettori were originally supposed to face each other at UFC 240 in April, but Vettori pulled out due to injury, and Allen faced and defeated Chris Curtis by split decision instead.
After Allen beat Curtis, Vettori criticized him on social media, writing: "Allen wtf u calling for the title man you look like dog s--t got rocked every single round and prayed you were getting the takedown just to hang in there. That s--t was embarrassing."
According to MMA Junkie's Nolan King and Ken Hathaway, Allen later clapped back, calling Vettori "irrelevant" and saying Vettori "don't want to fight."
There was clearly a great deal of bad blood between Allen and Vettori that built up in recent months, and it boiled over in Florida.
