Miami, FL — Curtis Blaydes had to overcome some serious adversity in his fight with Jailton Almeida at UFC 299, but came out the other side a winner.
Blaydes (18-4, 1NC) was rather surprisingly dominated in the wrestling department in the first round. But when Almeida “got uncomfortable” in round two, as Blaydes put it in his post-fight press conference appearance, “and shot a very telegraphed shot,” “Razor” Blaydes took the upper hand. A deluge of hammerfists put Almeida away as he stayed committed to the takedown attempt.
The #5-ranked heavyweight stated in his post-fight interview with Joe Rogan at the Kaseya Center on Saturday that he had unfinished business with Tom Aspinall, and is targeting that rematch next. Aspinall injured his leg early in the pair’s first meeting, so while Blaydes came away with the TKO victory, it’s clearly not how he wanted the fight to play out.
He’s even willing to head overseas once again for the rematch. “London was dope. I’m down to go back,” he told media members backstage.
Of course, Aspinall feels like the next in line after Jon Jones vs. Stipe Miocic, and should one of those not make their fight— which has yet to be rescheduled— it’s likely that Aspinall gets the call.
Yet should he sit and wait, Blaydes isn’t sure what comes next. Nothing else makes sense to him, and he appears to have zero interest in a fight with ex-interim heavyweight champ Ciryl Gane.
“Nope. I feel like you guys are all trying to edge me towards Gane. That’s not happening. I asked for him already in the past,” Blaydes told Cageside Press. “He missed that bus. So if it’s not Aspinall, we’ll figure it out. I’m not going to make no concrete decisions right now, cause I don’t know what’s going on. I haven’t even looked at my phone all day. But if it’s not Aspinall, we’ll go from there. It ain’t going to be Gane though. That’s a no.”
Watch the full UFC 299 post-fight press conference with Curtis Blaydes above.
