UFC Vegas 122 preview and predictions: Brendan Allen vs. Christian Leroy Duncan — who wins?

Nairavoice | Oct 9, 2026 57m ago 196 0 7 min read

UFC Vegas 122 preview and predictions: Brendan Allen vs. Christian Leroy Duncan — who wins?

UFC Vegas 122 spotlights the middleweight division this Saturday night with a contender clash between Brendan Allen and the ascending Christian Leroy Duncan inside the Meta Apex.

The matchup comes at an interesting time for the 185-pound division, amid champion Sean Strickland’s continued social media tirade over his dissatisfaction with the UFC. A win for either the surging Allen or Duncan brings them one step closer to a potential title shot. Allen has been in hot pursuit of UFC gold for years, while Duncan has seemingly come into his own of late and put together a noteworthy five-fight win streak.

As for the card as a whole, the UFC somehow keeps outdoing itself by being its version of the phrase “the smartest idiot in the room.” Except in this case, that room is an entire sport, and being the smartest idiot means being the laziest collection of patricians.

Right when you think you’ve seen the worst UFC card lineup ever assembled, we get UFC Vegas 122 waving from the shoreline of UFC island like Ralphie from “The Simpsons.”

👑 UFC Vegas 122’s lineup Crown grade: F. 👑

https%3A%2F%2Fd29szjachogqwa.cloudfront UFC Vegas 122 preview and predictions: Brendan Allen vs. Christian Leroy Duncan — who wins?

Brendan Allen is becoming the Meta Apex king.

For full transparency, Allen vs. Duncan is a solid, perfectly logical fight given where each man is in their career.

That doesn’t make it a good main event by any standard.

Allen seemed done and dusted after his seven-fight win streak ended at the hands of Nassourdine Imavov in late 2024. I thought he was done as a contender, at least. He followed that loss by dropping a unanimous decision to Anthony Hernandez in Seattle, but put up a good effort. Then he just decided to start winning again. Marvin Vettori’s ghost suffered a beating, Reinier de Ridder was upset on short notice, and most recently, Edmen Shahbazyan’s own little hot streak crashed head-on into Allen’s brick wall.

Still just 30 years old, Allen is the doggiest dog among the middleweight contenders. He doesn’t blow your hair back in any performance, but he is exceptionally good at everything. The guy can hang in any type of fight and adjust to take the action wherever it best benefits him. It’s just a matter of whether his opponent adapts and defends.

Duncan, 31, has established himself as one of the slickest strikers at 185 pounds, which was evident upon his arrival. Early on, Arman Petrosyan slowed him down before Gregory Rodrigues showed him the value of experience. Both were concerning losses, as they beat Duncan by closing gaps and making him uncomfortable, which is Allen’s strong suit.

Sure, “CLD” has won five straight since Rodrigues, but admittedly his win streak is more washed than a pair of hands in a rinse contest. Like, it’s all-time stuff, folks. Eryk Anders, Roman Dolidze and Jared Cannonier are not who they once were. Add in Marco Tulio and Andrey Pulyaev, and you have the perfect formula to headline a show in the Apex!

Duncan’s great striking and improved takedown defense will give him moments to shine, but Allen has been the more consistent man against better competition. Plain and simple.

With Duncan in the main event and Jai Herbert in the co-main, this is a regional U.K. show brilliantly disguised as a UFC Fight Night.

Despite Herbert’s fantastic one-round war with Mandel Nallo in his last outing, which he won by knockout, the placement of this fight is wild.

Herbert, 38, has been a journeyman of the highest order since he arrived in the UFC in 2020, failing to win back-to-back fights in nine attempts. To be fair, the man hasn’t been put in favorable positions, getting matched with the likes of Ilia Topuria, Renato Moicano, Francisco Trinaldo and Fares Ziam in notable losses.

Against Matheus Camilo, Herbert finds himself in the same position King Green discussed ahead of his own UFC 332 fight last week. He’s the weathered veteran the promotion wants to shove to the wayside to help build an up-and-coming prospect.

Camilo, 25, rebounded from his UFC debut loss to Gabe Green with strong efforts over Viacheslav Borshchev and Nazim Sadykhov. The Brazilian packs compact power into lethal short shots that deceive. Both he and Herbert excel at landing counters, but speed will be crucial here, and the edge leans toward “Jaguar.”

Lupita “Loopy” Godinez has been so close to getting over the hump at strawweight. Her last performance against one-time title challenger Tatiana Suarez was as good as she could have asked for — in Round 1. Then Suarez adjusted and found the second-round rear-naked choke for the win.

Ketlen Souza has had notable ups and downs thus far into her UFC run. Her losses to Karine Silva and Angela Hill were nothing to hang her head over, and she’s shown her capabilities against Yazmin Jauregui and Ariane Carnelossi.

Souza is at her best when able to dictate the pace and bully opponents. Against someone like Godinez, who moves well and boxes better than most strawweights, that won’t be easy. The step-up in competition is decent here for Souza, as Godinez has been fighting and beating the better strawweights for longer. But again, despite that last loss, Godinez has seemingly leveled up.

Kai Kamaka is making up for lost time in his UFC run.

I know I pointed out Herbert’s inability to string together a win streak. So, it’s only fair to highlight that Andre Fili hasn’t done so since 2019.

The veteran featherweight is always ready for a good, old-fashioned slugfest. Sometimes, that works out for him. More often than not in recent years, it has not.

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Kamaka has had a pretty unique career. Before his last fight — a TKO loss to Luke Riley — his previous four losses were split decisions. That means Kamaka could’ve easily been on a 15-fight win streak before his loss to Riley. He’s a game competitor who can hang with anyone, as he’s shown.

Fili has significantly more tread on his tires in this matchup, which is all it takes to doubt him against a durable Hawaiian. This should be a chaotic banger while it lasts. And that might not be very long.

Is it time to restart the Malcolm Wellmaker hype train? Probably not.

Nonetheless, this is Wellmaker’s fight to lose after dropping two straight. The once-hot Georgian prospect now finds himself tasked with an “actual” Georgian — from the country rather than the American state.

Tanzilovi is a wilder, scrambly striker who pursues finishes at the first sign of weakness. It’s the kind of reckless abandon any viewer can appreciate, but Wellmaker has consistently shown great hand speed and knockout power throughout his career, making Tanzilovi a prime target for a rebound highlight.

UFC matchmakers dug up Niko Price after his dual retirement fight against Michael Chiesa this past March in Seattle. That was simply so Price could have a more “focused” retirement moment on him. But realistically, they probably should have left him where he was. The sentiment is flattering, but having lost six of his past seven, with five of those ending in finishes, Price is cooked well-done.