Miami, FL – UFC heavyweight Curtis Blaydes recognizes criticism of the division, but isn’t worried about it as he gets set to take on Jailton Almeida at UFC 299 on Saturday night.
“The observations aren’t wrong, but they’re not talking about me because I know I’m not like that,” Blaydes told Cageside Press along with other reporters on Wednesday.
“So I don’t really care.”
Blaydes (17-4) was originally booked against Almeida last November, but he was forced out due to two ankle injuries. The matchup was ultimately kept together for UFC 299.
“Injuries happened in June that’s when I heard about the fight originally. I’ve never had injuries before so I was like, ‘I’ll be healthy by November, but I never stopped working out,” Blaydes said.
“I never gave my ankles time to heal. They’ve healed. I just needed rest. With ankles it’s just they’re very sensitive and it’s hard to let them heal as you’re working out.”
Rebooking the fight with Almeida wasn’t much of a surprise to Blaydes who figured there was nobody else to pair him up with.
“I was very happy. I didn’t think there was anyone else they would give me because who else is there, but you never know,” he said.
The matchup with Almeida is interesting with both men being high-level grapplers, but Blaydes doesn’t see his opponent as being anything special overall.
“He hasn’t really shown anything with footwork and hands. He’s a traditional Jiu Jitsu guy. He’s like a heavyweight version of Damian Maia. Don’t have hands. Just want to grapple,” he said.
Watch the entire media day scrum with Curtis Blaydes above. He takes on Jailton Almeida at UFC 299 on Saturday night.
