Brendan Allen was able to leave Reinier de Ridder so exhausted that he couldn’t make it back out for the fifth round of their main event fight tonight at UFC Fight Night 262 to secure a TKO victory.

De Ridder started the fight brightly, soon managing to take Allen down, where he would control him for the entirety of the round.

RDR looked for more of the same in the second round, and did eventually manage to get another takedown, this time after clinch-work against the cage, but this time a failed attempt to secure the back enabled Allen to get on top. And Allen was able to land some good elbows in the second-half of the round as he kept de Ridder grounded.

De Ridder secured another takedown early in the third and took the back, but this time Allen managed to turn into him to get back on top. Good ground-and-pound followed from Allen, and RDR was beginning to look fatigued, and that becomes even more apparent at the end of the round when he took a long time to get back to his feet and return to his corner and was sporting a sizeable lump to the side of his head.

In the 4th round it was Allen who initiated a quick takedown attempt and landed it with authority. Allen was patient on top for much of the round and chipped away with with De Ridder appearing to be too tired to offer much in the way of resistance.

Again RDR struggled to muster the energy to make it back to his feet at the conclusion of the round, resulting in the ref warning him he’d end the fight if he didn’t hurry up.

De Ridder did make it back to his corner, but his corner were now concerned, and after speaking with him they decided to throw in the towel, resulting in a TKO victory for Allen at 5.00mins of the 4th round.

Not a good look for RDR there as it seemed to just be exhaustion as much as anything else, and that brings an end to both his four-fight winning run in the UFC, and his title ambitions.