Curtis Blaydes was just as frustrated as everyone else following his win in UFC London’s main event, which ended in 15 seconds after Tom Aspinall suffered a knee injury.
“I have no idea what happened,” Blaydes said at the UFC London post-fight press conference. He landed the kick and I tried to stop him. This is all I know.
“I’m frustrated. No one wants to win like that. It was a win for me, and I am able to keep my rank. I also get the cash. It was a dull fight, but it did happen. What happened to the fight? This will be featured in the media next week. Do I have a chance to interview Ariel Helwani about this? Am I going to be on YouTube? Am I going to gain 50,000 Instagram followers? No. So I’m disappointed about all of that, but nothing we can do about it now.”
It was an unfortunate conclusion to a fight that was supposed to answer plenty of questions about Aspinall’s potential in the UFC heavyweight division and Blaydes’ title chances. It was also supposed to be an important crossroads for Blaydes, a longtime contender who was slotted as the betting underdog despite a sterling 12-3 record in his six-year UFC run.
That part is even more frustrating for Blaydes, because even after the limited in-cage time he had opposite Aspinall, “Razor” is confident he could’ve made a thunderous statement.
“Everyone was hyping up [Aspinall’s] speed. He’s not as fast as you guys make it seem to be,” Blaydes said. Although it took 15 seconds to complete the exchanges, every one of them was touched. He’s not sparking them because they are stagnant. This is evident in many of his highlights. Their feet don’t move, and that is exactly what I do. The hype is just too much. He’s not as fast as people thought. He’s not quite as large as people thought. He kicked me, which caused him to get hurt. I felt bigger and more explosive.
“So I don’t know. It’s a weird night. Really hard to come up with witty answers with a win like that. It is hard to get excited about it .”
The loss is Aspinall’s first of his UFC run, halting the Englishman’s five-fight win streak since debuting in the promotion.
Blaydes, on the other hand, has now technically won seven of his past eight bouts. He’s currently MMA Fighting’s No. 5 ranked heavyweight in world and was eyeing a big-time matchup against the winner of September’s UFC Paris main event between Ciryl Gane and Tai Tuivasa. Blaydes doesn’t want to be disappointed with Saturday’s victory, but he is willing to put aside his grievances and wait for Aspinall’s return to health.
“I’m not risking my ranking [for an immediate rematch],” Blaydes said. I won the fight. Heading into this fight, I envisioned the winner — which is me — would be fighting the winner of [Tai] Tuivasa and [Ciryl] Gane. So I’m not going to pass up an opportunity to fight those guys when it’s right there, to wait for Tom Aspinall to heal and run it back.
“As long as I knock out the next guy, the hype’s back. MMA is like that. It’s possible to win 4 fights, then lose one, and everyone will say you’re a jerk. You could lose three in a row, win one, and you’re the greatest in the world. So the last fight’s the only one that matters.”
