Curtis Blaydes doesn’t plan on changing his fighting style for anyone.
Blaydes earned the unanimous decision verdict over Alexander Volkov in their UFC Vegas 3 headliner last night. It was a dull affair that saw Blaydes utilize his wrestling for majority of the fight without landing any real significant damage.
And although he has had better performances — especially as he seemed to have gassed out in the championship rounds — Blaydes was happy with the win. He even believes his fighting style has made him a heel now.
“I think I know who I am now: I’m a heel,” Blaydes said at the post-fight press conference (via MMA Fighting). “You don’t like what I do. I like to make you mad. I like to win.”
Blaydes: I Predicted The Fight
It wasn’t only the fans who criticized Blaydes, but also UFC president Dana White who was expecting a better showing after all of his trash talk coming into the fight.
FYI if y’all were hoping to see a 25 minute stand up war you probably shouldn’t tune in to the main event cause I fully intend on ragdolling my opponent just figured I’d let y’all know ahead of time
— Curtis Blaydes (@RazorBlaydes265) June 19, 2020
But Blaydes is happy to earned the win in gritty fashion and still believes he delivered on what he said he was going to do.
“That’s probably the best part about this win is I predicted this, and I did it for 25 minutes,” Blaydes added. “It didn’t look the best, but I’m OK with having a gritty win like that. I know a lot of fans didn’t like it. I’m OK with that. It makes me happy.”
Blaydes, however, acknowledged that he did run out of gas in the latter rounds. But it’s something that will only make him better the next time he returns to the Octagon.
“I’m going to work on it,” he said of his conditioning. “You live and you learn. It’s always good to learn lessons, especially when you win and learn a lesson. Next time, I’ll be a lot more judicious with my takedowns and the pace. Next time we get a tall guy like that, I didn’t really get to bring in anyone who was like him. I wasn’t really used to the dimensions, and it presented problems when I was in the guard. It presented some problems that we weren’t really ready for it, but we made it.”
Blaydes is on a four-fight winning streak and has won eight of his last nine outings.
What did you think of his performance?