It has been seven years since their paths first crossed on the regional scene.
At UFC Seattle this weekend, two top 15 middleweights will meet again after competing against one another before they both arrived in the UFC.
Brendan Allen will look to bounce back into the win column following his loss to Nassourdine Imavov last September in Paris which ended his seven-fight streak that earned him a spot in the top 10.
He meets Anthony Hernandez who has only recently gained a number next to his name after stopping Michel Pereira in his first main event spotlight last time out to extend his winning streak to six.
Despite both men finding their way to the top of the middleweight division, their first encounter with one another in 2018 was under very different circumstances.
Anthony Hernandez convincingly beat Brendan Allen over five rounds for the LFA middleweight title
At LFA 32 in January of 2018, Brendan Allen looked to win the vacant middleweight title in his second shot at the belt after coming up short against Eryk Anders in the past.
His opponent would be an LFA debutant, the 5-0 Anthony Hernandez who had exactly half the amount of pro bouts as his opponent at the time.
Both men relied on a heavy grappling approach and that led to an incredibly close opening round with commentator and UFC Hall of Famer Pat Miletich scoring it a 10-10 on his unofficial card.
After attempting a few submissions in the first, Hernandez slightly switched up his approach in the rest of the fight and as a result, he was able to clock in lots of top control time where he smothered Allen with his signature relentless cardio.
Allen had a few moments here and there but for the most part, the remaining four rounds of the fight were largely the same with Hernandez dictating the action.
Hernandez was declared the new LFA middleweight champion after five gruelling rounds with two judges giving him four rounds and one scoring all five in his favor.
From here, ‘Fluffy’ Hernandez would get the opportunity to fight on Dana White’s Contender Series where he’d go on to debut inside the Octagon just over a year on from beating Allen.
A few long breaks in his run with the promotion means that he has currently fought nine times under the UFC banner, going 7-2 with six finishes.
Allen, on the other hand, stayed in LFA for a bit longer where he won the middleweight title before also coming through the Contender Series one year later than Hernandez.
‘All In’ has since been one of the most active fighters in the division, racking up 15 UFC bouts under his belt with a record of 12-3, losing only to Imavov, Sean Strickland and Chris Curtis.
A lot has changed for Anthony Hernandez and Brendan Allen in the space of seven years
Brendan Allen may have had to wait a bit longer to get into the UFC but he has certainly made up for that time with how active he has been.
Though Anthony Hernandez may be ranked lower than him, ‘Fluffy’ really appears to have settled into a groove during this current winning streak.
His constant pace and pressure has been on show against dangerous strikers like Pereira and Roman Kopylov but now we will see whether he still holds the grappling advantage over his former foe.
One thing you can be sure of is that Allen will have worked extensively on what went wrong in his loss to Hernandez to make sure that history doesn’t repeat itself at the Climate Pledge Arena on February 22.