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Brendan Allen Steps in to Replace Anthony Hernandez for a Middleweight Fight Against Punahele Soriano

Published 05/26/2021, 1:59 PM EDT

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UFC Fight Night: Gane vs. Volkov saw a cancelation today. Anthony Hernandez has been forced out of UFC Fight Night on June 26, and Allen will step in to face Punahele Soriano on a new scheduled date on July 24. The two promising middleweights will battle it out to see who has the better chances of entering the UFC top 15 rankings.

The original fight between Hernandez and Soriano won’t be made any time soon. Both Soriano and Allen have great records, with Soriano having a record of 8-0 and Hernandez being 16-4 in 20 fights. Additionally, Soriano also has two wins in two attempts with the UFC and got two first-round knockout finishes.

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He is an exciting prospect who is looking to take the next step. On the other hand, his opponent Allen, a former LFA middleweight champion, has won eight of his past nine. After getting stopped by Sean Strickland for his first UFC loss in November, he rebounded with a first-round ankle lock submission of Karl Roberson at UFC 261 in April.

The July 24 card will be headlined by a bantamweight bout between Cory Sandhagen (ranked number 2 in the official UFC rankings for bantamweight) and the former UFC bantamweight champion of the world, TJ Dillashaw.

This will be Dillashaw’s return from a suspension that had him banned for two years. He was suspended for using performance-enhancing drugs, which clouded a lot of his championship wins. However, he seems to be clean now, and it will be interesting to see how this layoff might have changed his game.

Punahele Soriano vs. Brendan Allen: A taste of what is to come on July 24th

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Soriano is a great prospect for the UFC after he was picked from Dana White’s contender series. He is a spectacular finisher and has finished 7 of his eight fights in the first round. Meanwhile, he won the 8th fight via a unanimous decision against Jamie Pickett.

via Imago

Meanwhile, Allen is more of a submission specialist and has got 9 submission wins in his record. He also has five knockouts, and hence it will be highly unlikely that the fight will go the distance. Keep your eyes on this one.

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Written by:

Aniket Awasthi

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Aniket Awasthi is a UFC author at EssentiallySports. This STEM undergraduate combines an insatiable urge to write with his admiration for MMA and the UFC in general to enhance his journalism. He calls charismatic names like Chael Sonnen and 'The Count' Michael Bisping as his favorite fighters, but he is a great admirer of the rise of Israel Adesanya ever since he fought Rob Wilkinson at UFC 221.
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