Curtis Blaydes gets the sense that the Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) doesn’t want him to capture heavyweight gold.
Blaydes is coming off a nasty TKO finish over Alistair Overeem at UFC 225 last month. Many felt that Blaydes punched his ticket for a heavyweight title shot. It wasn’t meant to be as newly crowned heavyweight champion Daniel Cormier is due for a big money fight against Brock Lesnar.
“Razor” admits he’s no fan of the title bout. He said the fight caters to “lame ass casual fans.” Many now believe Blaydes is headed for a bout with Alexander Volkov, who is coming off a finish over former UFC heavyweight champion Fabricio Werdum. Nothing is confirmed on that end.
During a recent appearance on MMA Junkie Radio, Blaydes explained why he believes there are politics at play when it comes to his title opportunity:
“I’m willing to wait, because I have this feeling that the UFC – they don’t really want me to have the belt. Because I don’t have the most exciting – my style isn’t the most fan-friendly. So I feel they would take every opportunity to not give me a title shot because they know my wrestling is the x-factor. If I have to, I will just take a guy down and ground and pound him for three rounds. Which, they’re right, is not the most exciting version of fighting. But it is the most effective, especially going against the heavyweights I have to go against. So me taking another opponent and me winning, I don’t think they would even care about that. I feel like even if I called out Stipe (Miocic) and I won, they would probably give it to Cain Velasquez or, who knows, maybe even Jon Jones or maybe Junior Dos Santos. There’s so many other guys that I know the UFC would rather have as champion of the heavyweights.”
Do you think Curtis Blaydes is just a victim of bad timing?
