The road to stardom in mixed martial arts always travels through the land of prospects, and two of the most promising talents in the United States went head-to-head Friday night at Valor 39.

Middleweight champion Sid Wheeler squared off with fellow standout Brendan Allen in a showdown between two of the top 185-pound fighters in the Southeast region, in a fight that held more than just a title on the line.

Wheeler suffering the first loss of his professional career in his last outing put an enormous amount of pressure on the 20-year-old’s shoulders heading into Friday night. A loss would derail every ounce of buzz surrounding his name, where a victory would serve to put the highly touted scrapper back on the road to bigger stages.

Unfortunately for Wheeler, the night belonged to Allen.

The Louisiana native took the action to the canvas from the jump and controlled the action until he decided to finish it. Allen throttled Wheeler on the ground in front of a stunned crowd, and worked from back or full mount for a large portion of the opening round.

Wheeler simply had no answer for Allen’s ground game, which made it even more surprising to see “The Kid” try to score a takedown to start the second round.

Allen was able to reverse the position and put Wheeler on his back once more, where he finished the bout by locking in an Americana lock. With the win, Allen not only steals Wheeler’s hype in the Southeast region, but his Valor Fights middleweight crown as well.