Curtis Blaydes has become the latest to voice his issue with UFC 304’s odd start time.
Blaydes will challenge interim heavyweight champion Tom Aspinall in the co-main event of UFC 304, which takes place on July 27 at the Co-op Live Arena in Manchester, England. The event marks the promotion’s return to Manchester for the first time in nearly eight years, but the card is scheduled for primetime in the United States. Early prelims for UFC 304 will begin at 11pm British Summer Time (BST), with the main card starting at 3am BST.
Blaydes argues that the odd timing of the card makes it feel less like a title fight, with “Razor” pointing out that a superstar like Conor McGregor is unlikely to fight for the title in the early hours of the morning, regardless of where the card takes place.
“The money is the title fight prize, that’s all that matters to me,” Blaydes told media at the scrum at UFC Denver. “Everything else is five rounds. I’ve been in a lot of five round fights. The biggest difference is it’s like 4 a.m., so that’s why it doesn’t feel like a title fight. You’re not going to see McGregor fighting for the belt at 4 a.m. anywhere in the world, so it feels a little less real. But like I said, I don’t care. I’m getting the title fight prize, that’s all that matters.”
Aspinall had previously voiced concerns about the start time of UFC 304 and had tried to convince UFC brass to change the start time but was unsuccessful. Aspinall is currently mirroring the schedule of Briton Leon Edwards, who hired a sleep expert to prepare for his title defense against Belal Muhammad in the UFC 304 main event.
Aspinall has long been fighting to face bona fide champion Jon Jones, who is currently sidelined with an injury but is adamant that he will face Stipe Miocic upon his return. Blaydes acknowledged that ideally Aspinall should have fought Jones for the title next. But while an interim title defense is unusual, Blaydes isn’t surprised, given UFC’s history of strange matchups. Blaydes recalled when Dan Henderson challenged Michael Bisping for the middleweight title at UFC 204 in 2016.
“Honestly, in an ideal world, it would be Aspinall vs. John, but that’s not the world we live in,” Blaydes said. “UFC has had a lot of weird, wacky fights in the past…Hendo [just comes out [and jumps the
queue for a title shot]”It’s normal in the UFC. It’s not like, ‘Oh my God!’ It’s normal.”
Jones and Miocic have both indicated they will retire regardless of the outcome of the title fight. The winner of the Aspinall-Blaydes fight would then assume champion status, but that status would inevitably be tarnished by his failure to beat Jones as lineal champion. But Blaydes doesn’t care as long as he gets his championship pay, and points out that “Bones” also became champion by beating then-interim champion Ciril Gane.
“As long as I’m getting paid as much as I am to have the belt, I’m the one who has it,” Blaydes said, “and that’s all there is to it, because people don’t remember. They remember that John took the belt from a guy who had the interim belt. So is the belt actually valid? That’s up for debate. I don’t know, and I don’t care.”
