At 33 years old, Curtis Blaydes still has plenty of time to develop and make a comeback at heavyweight.
Blaydes (18-5, 1 no-hitter) challenged Tom Aspinall (15-3) for the interim heavyweight title in the co-main event of UFC 304. The bout took place in Aspinall’s hometown of Manchester, England. The two fought in 2022, with Blaydes winning by injury TKO after Aspinall suffered a knee injury 15 seconds into the bout. In the rematch, Blaydes had the early advantage, but a single jab took “The Razor” down before Aspinall used relentless ground-and-pound to end the bout within the first minute.
Although Blades apologised for his loss, having messed up his pre-planned game plan after landing early on Aspinall, “Razor” remained confident he could have beaten the Englishman had he stuck to the strategy devised by his coaches.
“I’m sorry,” Blades wrote, “I got greedy when I touched him early and ruined a great play by coach Vinny Lopez. [and] If Cody Donovan came up with it, it would have worked. There are no excuses. Tom was perfect tonight. I know this is not the end of my journey, but I know it can be better than tonight’s performance. I really appreciate all the support. It’s been an eye-opening experience to have so much support. [people] Rock with me.”
Blaydes earned himself a shot at the interim title with a second-round comeback win over then-rising Jairton Almeida. After his win over Aspinall in 2022, Blaydes faced Sergey Pavlovic in a de facto title-decider bout, where he succumbed to a strikeout in the first round. Aspinall, the victor, has only made it past the first round once in his eight UFC wins, with his injury loss to Blaydes being the only blemish on the promotion’s record. The promotion has announced that Aspinall’s next opponent will be the winner of the unannounced fight between Jon Jones and Stipe Miocic, rumored to take place in November.
