UFC heavyweight contender Curtis Blaydes’ path to a first title shot this weekend has certainly had its ups and downs.
Blaydes will finally compete with gold on the line in the co-main event of Saturday’s UFC 304 pay-per-view, where he’s tasked with unseating Tom Aspinall in the interim heavyweight champion’s home city of Manchester, England.
The bout marks a rematch, with the pair previously colliding in London two years ago. While “Razor” had his hand raised on that occasion, the manner of victory — a knee injury to Aspinall after just 15 seconds — did little to advance his championship ambitions.
And after being subsequently passed up for a shot at the then-vacant belt against Jon Jones in March 2023, a defeat to Sergei Pavlovich threatened to derail his pursuit of title glory once again.
But Blaydes was able to bounce back from that defeat and earn his shot at the interim belt on July 27. That’s seemingly in part down to his history of bouncing back from tough moments inside the cage…
Blaydes Looks Back On Difficult Ngannou Loss, Explains Attitude Toward Setbacks
During a recent interview with CBS Sports’ Shakiel Mahjouri, Blaydes looked ahead to his long-awaited first title opportunity on MMA’s biggest stage and reflected on the moments that have led up to this point.
When asked at which point he felt the lowest regarding his title prospects, “Razor” pointed to his 45-second defeat to Francis Ngannou when they ran it back in the main event of a UFC Fight Night in China six years ago.
“Probably after my rematch with Ngannou in 2018,” Blaydes said. “He was off of a loss against Derrick Lewis. I’m off a win against Alistair (Overeem) and Mark Hunt. I felt like I was like, heading in the right direction. Go off to Beijing, fight lasts like 15 seconds. I didn’t really get to perform any of the new skills and techniques that I had been developing over the years.
“That was a long flight home. That was like an 18-hour flight home and just a lot of reflecting,” Blaydes continued. “When I lose, I’ve always viewed it as, as long as you’re able to take something from a loss, it’s not a total loss. I’ve been using that. When I have a loss, I take it, reflect, grow, and I do my best to not repeat the same mistakes.”
Having bounced back from setbacks such as those opposite Ngannou, Blaydes will look to finally complete his ascent to the heavyweight mountaintop by upsetting the odds and the Manchester crowd come fight night at UFC 304.
