Curtis Blaydes believes the judges got it wrong at UFC 327, and he made his case clearly in the aftermath of a war with Josh Hokit that left both men battered and sent to the hospital.
Blaydes dropped a unanimous decision to Hokit via 29-28 scores across the board in their heavyweight contest in Miami on April 11, with both fighters combining for more than 390 strikes across three rounds. Despite the result, Blaydes is convinced he did enough to win.
"I hate to be that guy, I've never had a fight like this, but I think I won," Blaydes told MMA Fighting. "I felt like I won round one. Yeah, he rocked me, he got the damage but I also rocked him equally at the end of that round and I got the takedown."
He gave the second round to Hokit but argued he controlled the third and pointed to the clinch exchanges as the area where the judges failed him most consistently.
"I feel like I won each of the clinch exchanges. Each one. We did those a few times. I won those. I think that was the difference."
Despite being rocked multiple times during the contest, Blaydes refused to go down, admitting the motivation to stay upright was partly personal.
"This guy who's been disrespectful to me all week — I was thinking in my head there were times like no, I'm not going to let this guy have that over me. It's bad enough that he has the win over me."
For Blaydes, Hokit's conduct throughout fight week and during the fight itself made any post-fight handshake impossible. Hokit repeatedly flipped off Blaydes during exchanges, and Blaydes said he simply could not bring himself to show respect when the final bell sounded.
"It's hard to respect a guy who flips you off five or six times during the fight. Do I regret that? Yeah, I wish I had been a lot more professional about that."
The two crossed paths one final time when both were loaded into the same ambulance for transport to a Miami hospital. When Blaydes heard Hokit's voice, he immediately asked to be moved further away.
