"He doesn’t go past 2 rounds" - Marvin Vettori issues challenge to Brendan Allen and three others after UFC Paris, gives potential return timeline

Former middleweight title challenger Marvin Vettori called out Brendan Allen for a potential fight. Vettori has been on the sidelines since suffering a lopsided defeat against Jared Cannonier in June 2023. The 30-year-old was scheduled to fight Allen this past June. However, he was forced to pull out due to a shoulder injury and had to undergo surgery.

It appears that 'The Italian Dream' wants to pick up where he left off. Following Allen's loss to Nassourdine Imavov in the UFC Paris co-main event on Sept. 28, Vettori took to X and called him out for a fight. The Italian fighter also named a former champion and a rising contender as preferred opponents.

"I need a comeback fight with this bum Allen, two-handed he doesn’t go past 2 rounds then Imavov [Caio] Borralho or even [Sean] Strickland can get it too."

Vettori underwent surgery in June and seems to be on his way to a full recovery. He shed light on the recovery process and the potential date of his return in another post on X:

"I know I’ve been out for a while. Shoulder takes f***ing forever [to recover]. I’m 15 weeks post-op, I’ve been on it and be back by January."

At the time of this writing, none of the four fighters have responded to Vettori's callout.

Strickland has campaigned for a rematch against Dricus du Plessis since losing the middleweight title to the South African at UFC 297. As confirmed by Dana White, he is the likely next challenger to du Plessis' title reign.

Meanwhile, Borralho inserted his name in the top five of the division with a recent win over Cannonier. Allen, the No.8-ranked middleweight as per the official UFC rankings, is the only fighter ranked below the No.6-ranked Vettori. The pair have been at odds for a while and were even seen brawling at a PFL event a few weeks ago.