Curtis Blaydes has made some interesting comments about his next opponent, Francis Ngannou, as he prepares for this rematch. If you recall, in their first fight, the former title contender was able to score a second-round TKO win.
Ngannou was attempting to build off his latest lost coming into this fight. As seen at the UFC 220 PPV (pay-per-view) event at TD Garden in Boston, Massachusetts on pay-per-view, UFC heavyweight champion Stipe Miocic successfully retained his title at the time in the main event by scoring a dominant decision win over the title contender.
Moving along to the UFC 226 pay-per-view event at the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas, Nevada, Derrick Lewis was able to pick up a unanimous decision win over the former title contender.
Blaydes stated in a recent interview that he believes Ngannou is unable to change the way he fights inside of the Octagon as he got to the point where he is dependent on his punching power and that is his weakness. Thus, he vows to expose it once again come fight night.
“I do believe he may have had an ego,” Blaydes said to Tom Taylor. “I think even after the loss to Stipe, I think he was able to get by for so long with just being a one punch, heavy handed type of guy. Then when he got a little bit of adversity, he wasn’t able to meet the challenge. I think he’s unwilling to change. I don’t see his grappling getting much better. I don’t see his conditioning getting much better. I believe he’s going to rely on his one punch power because he has an ego. He believes in his one punch power that much.”
“It gives me a lot more options to win,” he said. “We have options, it’s just easier. But you have to do one thing, and then you’re not able to do it, you get frustrated and you start to over commit, and that just leads to mistakes.”
Blayds and Ngannou are slated to meet once again at the upcoming UFC Beijing event (also known as UFC Fight Night 141) on November 25, 2018 at Cadillac Arena in Beijing, China.
The main card will air on FOX Sports 1 while the preliminary card will be split broadcasted on FOX Sports 1 and the promotion’s streaming service, UFC Fight Pass.
