UFC veteran Trevin Giles will step into the octagon for the 14th time at UFC Fight Night: Moreno vs. Albazi in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada, challenging the home country favourite Mike Malott. Coming into his fight with Malott, Giles has a UFC record of seven victories and six defeats. While it may not seem too impressive, a glance at Giles’ opposition will tell you way more than just the numbers; “The Problem” has faced the likes of Dricus Du Plessis, Michael Morales, Gabriel Bonfim and Carlos Prates – who were all considered exiting up-and-comers at the time of fighting Giles.
An interesting matchmaking choice by the organisation raises an important question: ‘Can the crafty Giles, who loses almost exclusively to prospects, defeat a recently derailed Canadian hype train in Malott?’
The question will remain unanswered until the moment one of the athletes proves their superiority over the other directly in the cage. But, until then, I would like to share with you an example of a fight where “The Problem” was able to deal with a prospect more than just successfully.
Giles vs. Allen
At Legacy FC 52, on March 25, 2016, two undefeated contenders in 4-0 Giles and 2-0 Allen, had to face each other.
Worth noting that Allen was announced as a Muay Thai fighter, which, seemingly, was true at the time.
“All In” opens up in a Muay Thai stance, getting hit with Giles’ straight shots, though landing some of the kicks. With more confidence taking clean shots by Trevin, Allen lands a great left hook of his own, wobbling his opponent. Giles goes for the clinch, saving himself from Allens’ wild combo, but gets taken down with a beautiful judo throw.
Giles starts looking for a submission from the back, yet comes up short. When “The Problem” tries to stand up against the cage, Allen locks up a rear-naked choke over the chin. Giles defends it smartly and gets into the top position.
Allen looks for armbars and knee bars instead of defending the disastrous ground and pound coming his way. Brendan likely doesn’t know where he is by the end of the first round, but he survives.
Giles starts the second round with a body kick and a nasty boxing combo towards still-hurt Brendan Allen. A painful clinch attempt by “All In” sees him on his back another time.
While Giles unleashes everything he has, half-conscious Allen continues to look for the opponent’s leg. It seems that if you wake this guy up in the middle of the night, the first thing he will try to do is to perform a leg lock on you.
Giles eventually takes the full mount and makes Brendan give up his back in a way-too-late attempt to protect himself from the devastating ground and pound.
From there, Trevin shows “All In” how to properly finish a rear-naked choke, makes the opponent tap.
Their careers since
Trevin would win four more fights and with a 9-0 record get signed by the UFC in 2017. As already mentioned, Giles has mixed results here and appears to be more of a lower-level gatekeeper for the organisation.
Brendan Allen would go on to win eight more fights on the regional circuit, while losing to Anthony Hernandez and Eryk Anders, two other future UFC athletes.
After getting the UFC contract on the third season of Dana White’s Contender Series (DWCS), Allen went 3-0 in the promotion, calling out Giles for the rematch.
He eventually lost to the future champion Sean Strickland. After that, Allen won two more bouts before losing to Chris Curtis. Those losses appear to have changed Brendan, as he then went on a seven-fight winning streak, breaking into the rankings in the process. Most recently, “All In” lost a unanimous decision to Nassourdine Imavov.
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