Issue 179

June 2019

The Chicago heavyweight on life in the UFC and why he wasn't cut out for the NFL.

You are coming off a tough loss, your second, at the hands of Francis Ngannou. How tough of a pill was that to swallow?

It wasn’t a tough pill to swallow. I got over it the night it happened. It happens. It’s the heavyweight division, one punch, that’s all it is. I’m not taking anything away from that fight – nothing positive or nothing negative because it was 45 seconds. There isn’t anything to take away from that. I am just looking forward to my next fight.

You are 13 pro fights deep into your career. You are a super young guy with a bright future ahead of you. It’s interesting, sometimes after only two or three fights in the UFC you were fighting legends and superstars. You fought stars like Mark Hunt and Alistair Overeem really early on. What was it like to jump up to that level so quickly and have such success against those guys?

It feels good to beat anyone but to beat guys of that calibre, those are even more special.

The way I beat them I feel like I did everything I wanted to in both of those fights. I was able to execute my game plan exactly how I wanted to. I feel great about 2018 and I feel equally as good about 2019.

If we were talking in January of 2020 what would we be saying about this coming year with regards to “Razor’ Blaydes?

All wins. Hopefully a title shot. Those are my goals.

You have voiced your opinion on the topic that a lot of us in the industry are discussing. It seems like the fight game is about everything but the fight sometimes. With all the self-promotion, the trash talk, the over-the-top actions of certain people…What are your thoughts on the current state of the UFC and MMA in general?

It’s pretty much what you just said. MMA is not what I originally thought it was going to be. It’s a lot more about promoting yourself and your brand. A lot of guys are going the a-hole route and that’s what gets guys noticed the fastest and the easiest. It’s all clickbait. That’s not my plan. I never was one of those guys. I don’t like it. I don’t think you need to promote yourself in that way. There are other ways to promote yourself. I just focus on what I am doing in the actual Octagon. That’s how I promote myself.

You wrestled in high school and college but you also played defensive end on the football field. What was Curtis Blaydes like on the football field?

That was a long time ago. I won’t lie to you. I was average. If I was above average I would probably be in the NFL right now making my money.

Who is your favorite team and what players did you like to watch growing up?

Being from Chicago, I am a Bears fan. Pretty much any Bear I liked watching. Like Brian Urlacher, Lance Briggs and those guys. This year’s team is playing a lot better than last year’s. That's all you can ask for.

You left college to pursue an MMA career. Can you tell us about that fork-in-the-road decision you made to leave school to pursue a career in the hardest industry in the world?

I didn’t really like school, so it wasn’t a very hard decision. I knew I was a good wrestler. I knew my wrestling was going to be enough to get me by most of my opponents until I hit the upper echelon. So, it wasn’t a hard decision.

I am a pretty logical thinker. I wouldn’t have tried MMA if I didn’t think I had a legitimate chance at being one of the best at it. I wasn’t in it just to get a contract and tell people I was in the UFC. I wouldn’t have taken the chance and dropped out of school if I didn’t think I had a legitimate chance of getting that UFC belt.