UFC heavyweight contender Curtis Blaydes says he won’t abandon his wrestling when he meets Derrick Lewis in the main event of UFC Vegas 19.
Blaydes is a powerhouse wrestler which has earned him some critics, including UFC president Dana White, who was not a fan of his last fight with Alexander Volkov. Despite winning a unanimous decision, Blaydes was not able to get the finish in that fight. Even though Blaydes has numerous TKO stoppages during his UFC run, he can’t seem to shake the label of a top-heavy wrestler. But he quite frankly doesn’t care what anyone thinks about his style. As long as he is winning fights, he won’t be changing the way he fights.
With the Lewis fight coming up this weekend, several fans have slid into Blaydes’ DMs on Instagram and told him to stand and bang with his opponent. Taking to his social media, Blaydes told these fans that they should be messaging Lewis instead, telling him to work on his takedown defense, instead of going after Blaydes and telling him not to wrestle.
Maybe y’all should be flooding my opponents DM’s asking him to stop my takedowns instead of flooding mine with request to abandon my wrestling because that’ll make the fight easier for him #areyoudumbstupidordumb #thisisnotagame #growup #suplexcity #helbows
Blaydes is currently riding a four-fight win streak and is closing in on the UFC heavyweight title, but a finish for him would surely be nice in this fight. Even if he does decide to use his wrestling, a TKO finish with ground and pound would look a lot better to White and the UFC matchmakers than a decision win would. While the boring label that has been applied to Blaydes is far from the truth, he can make things easier on himself as far as the critics go if he goes in there and beats Lewis to a pulp, which is what the oddsmakers say he will do.
Do you foresee Curtis Blaydes dominating Derrick Lewis with his wrestling, or do you think there will be more striking in this fight than anticipated?