Outside Source
UFC president Dana White insists that he likes heavyweight contender Curtis Blaydes, but had some harsh criticism of the No. 3 contender in the division following his UFC on ESPN 11 victory over Alexander Volkov.
Blaydes was dominant, taking Volkov down a total of 14 times out of 25 attempts in their headlining bout. By the end of the third round, however, he was breathing heavy and was running on fumes through the final two frames. Still, he won the bout via a unanimous decision.
The victory won’t get Blaydes the fight he wants next: a title shot. He’d have to leap-frog Francis Ngannou to get the winner of the Aug. 15 trilogy between Stipe Miocic and Daniel Cormier. That’s not going to happen. He also talked a lot of smack ahead of the fight with Volkov. White doesn’t believe that Blaydes delivered and told him so in his post-fight comments.
“First of all, his two losses are to Francis. How do you give him the title fight over Francis? But yeah, he would be considered next in line. With his performance tonight and his cardio, I wouldn’t wait around if I was him. I’d stay active. I’d stay busy,” said White at the UFC on ESPN 11 post-fight press conference.
“I like Curtis Blaydes, but Curtis Blaydes has the wrong attitude, as far as I’m concerned. I don’t have anything against the kid at all. When you talk s–t like he talked this week, you better come in and whoop somebody’s ass when you talk s–t like that. When you talk the s–t that he talked and perform like you performed tonight, you look stupid.”
For his part, Blaydes accepted the criticism and appeared to be defining what he thinks his role is in the UFC heavyweight division.
“I think I know who I am now; I’m a heel. You don’t like what I do. I like to make you mad. I like to win,” Blaydes said at the press conference.
Though Blaydes talked a lot of smack ahead of the fight, he said that he had prepared for the fight to go 25 minutes. It was the first time that he’d gone five full rounds. In fact, it was only the fourth time in his career that Blaydes went the distance. The other three times he went the duration, they were three-round bouts. Most of Blaydes’s fights have ended inside of the first two rounds. So it was a good experience for him, even though he was wiped out by the end of the fight.
“That’s probably the best part about this win is I predicted this, and I did it for 25 minutes,” Blaydes said. “It didn’t look the best, but I’m okay with having a gritty win like that. I know a lot of fans didn’t like it. I’m okay with that. It makes me happy.”
(Subscribe to MMAWeekly.com on YouTube
TRENDING > Dana White: ‘Conor McGregor is retired’
Curtis Blaydes UFC on ESPN 11 Full Post-Fight Press Conference
(Subscribe to MMAWeekly.com on YouTube)
This article first appeared at News – MMAWeekly.com
Help support MMACrazies.com when you shop Amazon by starting your online Amazon shopping at MMACrazies.com/recommends/amazon. You are not charged extra, but we receive a small and very helpful commission on everything you purchase. Thanks for thinking of us every time you shop at Amazon.
