Curtis
Blaydes considers his upcoming interim heavyweight title fight
against Tom
Aspinall at UFC 304
the real title fight in the division.
Advertisement
Lineal champ Jon Jones has
been sidelined since pulling out of a scheduled title defense
against Stipe
Miocic at UFC 295 in November 2023. Aspinall knocked out
Sergei
Pavlovich in a short-notice title fight at UFC 295 and has
since been calling for a unification bout against Jones. However,
Jones remains adamant on returning to action against Miocic, who
hasn’t fought in over three years. With both Jones and Miocic also
teasing retirement after their planned bout, Blaydes doesn’t
consider the potential matchup a legitimate title fight.
Blaydes has previously admitted that Aspinall should ideally have
been fighting Jones in a title unifier instead of defending his
interim strap. However, Blaydes considers his upcoming bout against
“Honey Badger” the real title fight at heavyweight. For the
perennially elite contender, the booking is reward of all the small
decisions he made over the course of the last decade.
Order Now!
“The interim doesn’t mean anything to me,” Blaydes told Shakiel Mahjouri. “I do believe this is the real
title fight. That’s how I’m approaching it. Just to get this
opportunity just validates all my decisions over the past 11 years.
Like me moving here out to Denver, moving away from Chicago and me
joining Elevation [Fight Team]… It was a bunch of small decisions,
and this is just a culmination of all that.”
While Blaydes doesn’t outright predict that Aspinall beats Jones in
a potential fight, he certainly believes the Brit has the necessary
skills to do so.
“I’m not gonna say a definitive yes, but I believe he has the
tools,” Blaydes said. “When Jon fought OSP [Ovince St.
Preux], I didn’t believe OSP has a shot. When Jon fought
Anthony
Smith, I like Anthony but I didn’t think he had the tools in
order to beat Jon. When Jon [goes] in there with Tom or went in
there with [Alexander
Gustafsson], I believe that they have the tools in order to
win.”