Unable to get a fight with Stipe Miocic, it looks like Curtis Blaydes will instead look to avenge his lone UFC loss.
With Daniel Cormier linked to a heavyweight title defense against Brock Lesnar and former champ Stipe Miocic apparently unwilling to fight anytime soon, top contender Curtis Blaydes doesn’t have many options for his next bout. So it appears that he has accepted a rematch with the recently-tarnished Francis Ngannou to attempt to negate his only UFC loss to date.
ESPN’s Ariel Helwani took to Twitter to report that Blaydes vs. Ngannou is tentatively set to headline the UFC’s first trip to Beijing:
Curtis Blaydes vs. Francis Ngannou is scheduled to be the main event for the 11/24 card in Beijing, China, per sources. The fight has been agreed to but not yet signed. Story coming to @espn.
— Ariel Helwani (@arielhelwani) August 16, 2018
Blaydes (10-1, 1 NC, 5-1, 1 NC UFC) made his UFC debut against Ngannou back in April of 2016 and was defeated via doctor stoppage at the end of the second round. He hasn’t lost since though, most recently stopping perennial contender Alistair Overeem via brutal third-round ground-and-pound TKO in June.
Ngannou (11-3, 6-2 UFC) was the future at heavyweight for a while, rattling off six stoppage wins in a row to earn a shot at the heavyweight title in January. He didn’t look good against Miocic though and was largely dominated in a decision loss. He looked to rebound against Derrick Lewis at UFC 226, but was completely timid and engaged in one of the worst fights of the year. He dropped that bout via decision and took a lot of heat from UFC president Dana White in the process.
UFC Beijing is scheduled for November 24th (the 25th there) in the Cadillac Arena in Beijing, China.