UFC Heavyweight Curtis Blaydes Clarifies Comments On Women’s MMA Fighters

Number three ranked UFC heavyweight, Curtis Blaydes, hopes to clear the air on his rant on women’s MMA.

Blaydes drew the ire of many when he criticized female fighters for using their sex appeal to hold roster spots. Fighters such as Paige VanZant and Pearl Gonzalez fired back at Blaydes over the rant. “Razor” wants to make it clear that he is not a hater of women competing in MMA.

Curtis Blaydes Clears The Air On Women’s MMA Rant

Speaking to MMAFighting.com, Blaydes said he’s a big fan of watching elite-level female fighters compete. His issue lies with those who he feels are taking up space.

“I love watching the top girls get in there and put on high displays of fighting,” Blaydes told MMA Fighting. “We just saw UFC 248, Joanna [Jedrzejczyk] and [Zhang] Weili, that was one of the best fights I’ve ever seen regardless of gender. That was one of the best performances I’ve seen ever. The back and forth, the high IQ techniques, the counters, the movement, I like that stuff.

“But just like there’s dudes in the men’s division I feel don’t really do a good job representing MMA, [and] I feel they don’t deserve a roster spot. I’m not dropping names, but there are dudes who don’t deserve it and there are girls who don’t. It’s equal opportunity.”

Blaydes is scheduled to be in action this Saturday night (June 20). He will collide with Alexander Volkov in the main event of UFC on ESPN 11. The action will be held inside the UFC APEX in Las Vegas, Nevada. Blaydes will look to hold onto his number three spot on the heavyweight rankings against the number seven ranked Volkov.

MMA News will be providing live coverage of UFC on ESPN 11. Be sure to join us this weekend for live results, highlights and post-fight tidbits. Also, join us on Friday as we’ll be bringing you live results of the weigh-ins.

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