Curtis Blaydes believes he sent everyone a reminder at Noche UFC.
Following a loss in a gritty Fight of the Night war
against Josh Hokit at UFC 327 in April, Blaydes (20-6 MMA, 15-6 UFC) returned to action to take on Waldo Cortes-Acosta on the main card of Noche UFC at Desert Diamond Arena in Glendale, Ariz. Blaydes got the job done on the scorecards against Cortes-Acosta (17-4 MMA, 10-4 UFC) to bounce back into the win column.Blaydes admits he thought Cortes-Acosta would be more aggressive in the fight, which led to some slower moments. He said that during training camp, his preparation was centered around dealing with constant forward pressure, but the fight played out differently.
Now that he's back on track, Blaydes wants a top-tier heavyweight,
whoever that may be. He's not looking closely at the rankings because Blaydes believes they don't make logical sense right now.
"I think I deserve a top 5 opponent," Blaydes said during a post-fight news conference (h/t Cageside Press). "There's a lot of these younger guys – no disrespect – I don't know a lot of their names. I know Mario Pinto, couple other guys, they've been slowly coming ahead of me. I'm like, 'Why am I sliding?' Yeah, I lost to Hokit, but it was a great fight. Even Hokit has been sliding. Rizvan (Kuniev)is ahead of me. I beat him. He gets top 5 after he beats Tyrell Fortune, who wasn't even ranked. Mario Pinto gets top 10 after he beats Ryan Spann, who's not even a real heavyweight.
"The rankings don't mean a damn thing to me no more. I no longer respect them. I'm not even going to look at them. That's why I don't really know where everyone is, but I hope to get a top 5 opponent next."
Blaydes recently signed a new eight-fight deal with the UFC, so he's not going anywhere soon. The 35-year-old former interim title challenger still has his eyes on gold, so he won't take fights against just anyone; opponents have to make sense for a title path.
"As we're getting older, we don't just want to be fighting anybody, because you could always get injured," Blaydes said. "You could break the hand, break the toe, break anything. So yeah, I'm not just fighting just anybody. Like, I took this fight because he was ranked above me, had a lot of steam, even though he just lost to Volkov. He's been very active, he's got a lot of highlights. That's why we took this fight in his hometown. I'm looking for, like I said, a top 5 guy.
"Like, I'm thinking about that game, Chutes and Ladders. As few steps as I can take to get here. If I can chute here, and chute here – that's what I'm looking to do. It just depends on the rankings, I guess."
This article originally appeared on MMA Junkie: Curtis Blaydes taking 'Chutes and Ladders' approach to UFC title
