Heading into the biggest fight of his life, Curtis Blaydes is ignoring all the naysayers.
With heavyweight champion Jon Jones holding out for a matchup against Stipe Miocic, does Blaydes’ interim heavyweight title bout against Tom Aspinall mean as much? Should Blaydes be mentioned in the same breath as Jones, who is perhaps the greatest fighter ever?
Blaydes, a Golden resident, doesn’t care about those storylines. He just wants to beat Aspinall on Saturday in the co-headliner of UFC 304 in Manchester, England.
“In a perfect world, it’s Aspinall vs. Jon (for a unified heavyweight title), but that’s not the world we live in,” Blaydes said. “The UFC’s had a lot of weird, wonky matchups over the years.
“… The money is title fight money, so that’s what matters to me. Everything else is going to be the same — five rounds, and I’ve had multiple five-rounders. The biggest difference is it’s going to be 4 a.m. (Manchester time), and that’s where it doesn’t feel like a real title fight to me. You wouldn’t have (Conor) McGregor fighting for a belt at 4 a.m. regardless of where it is in the world.”
Blaydes beat Aspinall two summers ago when the Englishman suffered a knee injury 15 seconds into their main-event fight in London. Since then, Aspinall’s recorded a pair of first-round knockouts, first of Marcin Tybura and then of Sergei Pavlovich at UFC 295 last November.
Jones was supposed to fight Miocic on that card, but the fight was scratched because Jones tore a pectoral tendon in training. Jones had that surgically repaired, and also had surgery on his elbow. Amid his recovery, he’s maintained his intention to fight Miocic next.
That’s kept Aspinall waiting and led to the rematch against Blaydes on Saturday.
“I’m expecting aggression, speed, (Aspinall) trying to knock me out fast and early,” Blaydes said. “… I’m just going to be organic and take whatever’s there. I’m going to be opportunistic if there’s a hole in the defense. I don’t expect there to be any holes, but if there’s a lay-up, I’ll hit the lay-up.”
Blaydes said that if he wins, he’ll consider himself the heavyweight champion without any thought to the asterisk that comes with it.
“As long as I’m getting paid like I have the belt, I have the belt. That’s all that matters,” Blaydes said. “People might not remember, but I remember, Jon got the belt off the guy who had an interim belt. So is that belt really that valid? That’s a debate. I don’t know. I don’t care.”
Jones, who is 27-1 as a pro, won the vacant heavyweight belt in 2023 with a first-round submission over Ciryl Gane, who initially claimed the interim belt against Derrick Lewis in 2021. Gane lost the belt to Francis Ngannou in 2022, and then Ngannou left the UFC, vacating the title and leading to the Jones-Gane fight last March. So as Blaydes points out, there have been a lot of moving pieces in the heavyweight title fights over the past few years.
Plus, Jones might retire after fighting Miocic. There’s a possibility that fight could happen in late fall at Madison Square Garden. That would leave the winner of Saturday’s bout between Aspinall and Blaydes in prime position to finally unify the heavyweight belt.
For Blaydes (18-4), his approach against Aspinall isn’t rewriting a new blueprint. He says he doesn’t feel any extra pressure with so much at stake as an underdog in the fight in Aspinall’s home city.
“Conditioning has been a focus,” Blaydes said. “I don’t adjust for anyone. I’ve prepared for this fight the same way I prepared for everyone. I don’t like to add to extra adjustments, extra things to think about. There’s already a whole lot (to consider). I don’t need to add anything else.”
