Brendan Allen and Edmen Shahbazyan meet on the UFC Fight Night 278 main card Saturday at the Meta APEX in Las Vegas. Check out this quick breakdown of the matchup from MMA Junkie analyst Dan Tom.
- Last event’s results: 4-1-1
- UFC main cards, 2026: 53-30-1
Allen (26-7 MMA, 14-4 UFC) has won his last pair of outings, taking a unanimous decision over Marvin Vettori and earning a retirement TKO against Reinier de Ridder.
Shahbazyan (16-5 MMA, 9-5 UFC) had a 3-0 run in 2025 and now enters his first fight of the year. His most recent outing was a first-round finish of Andre Muniz at UFC 320.
The co-main event for UFC Fight Night 278 features a middleweight matchup between Brendan Allen and Edmen Shahbazyan that has all the trap-fight feels attached.
Despite Allen being a Top 4 middleweight deserving of title contention, the Louisiana native is taking a risky step back to fight Shahbazyan.
Although Shahbazyan has traditionally been a dangerous fighter early who tends to fade late, the Armenian prospect has quietly been shoring up his holes since moving shop to train with Erick Nicksick and company at Xtreme Couture MMA (a gym that has had many passes to prepare for Allen).
Allen is the deserved favorite who should win this fight more times than not, but I’m getting genuine trap-fight vibes and find myself going the other way.
It’s not a fight I want to have much to do with from a betting perspective, but I’ll officially pick the underdog in Shahbazyan to shock the masses with a knockout win in Round 2.
The oddsmakers and the public favor the ranked fighter, listing Allen -188 and Shahbazyan +152 via FanDuel.
Allen and Shahbazyan are expected to walk to the cage at approximately 9:40 p.m. ET. The fight streams live on Paramount+.
This article originally appeared on MMA Junkie: UFC Vegas 118: Brendan Allen vs. Edmen Shahbazyan prediction, pick, time
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