At UFC 299 this Saturday, Curtis Blaydes and Jailton Almeida will finally share the Octagon after their scheduled fight in November was canceled.
It has been 11 months since Curtis Blaydes last fought in the UFC, and that fight came against the bulldozer, Sergei Pavlovich, who scored a first-round knockout.
In his fight prior to that, Curtis Blaydes faced off with current interim heavyweight champion, Tom Aspinall, but that fight ended extremely unceremoniously due to Aspinall picking up an injury within the first minute.
Although that fight happened over 18 months ago, Curtis Blaydes told Ariel Helwani on The MMA Hour this Monday, that he believes himself and Aspinall have ‘unfinished business’, and he doesn’t see it as a win on his record.
‘Razor’ Blaydes also admitted that he thinks there is a possibility that if he beats Jailton Almeida at UFC 299, he will have the chance to run it back with the Englishman.
“Yeah, I do believe that’s a possibility, but at the same time, I’m not going to hold my breath. I’m not worried about the future I’m locked in and if that opportunity does present itself I’ll be there to take it and I’ll be ready.
“I do believe that Aspinall and I do have unfinished business because we didn’t really get to fight it was 20 seconds. I know it’s a win for me and a loss for him but we both know and understand we have to run that back.”
Curtis Blaydes targets Jailton Almeida for now
Before any of that has the chance to culminate, the 33-year-old must get past Jailton Almeida at UFC 299 first. The Brazilian is undefeated thus far in his UFC tenure and has rapidly ascended the heavyweight rankings.
Despite Almeida’s dominance up until this point, Blaydes said on The MMA Hour that the only thing he was surprised about from his last win against Derrick Lewis, was the lack of submission attempts from Almeida.
“It was pretty much what I expected. He’s a grappler he’s not really known for the striking or the footwork on the feet so we all knew that’s what he wanted to do, he was able to do it. The only thing that did surprise me a little bit was the lack of submission attempts.
“I thought he’d have a bigger bag of high-level jiu-jitsu things. He had 15 minutes of top time so the only thing that was a surprise was the lack of submission attempts.”
Jailton Almeida has accumulated 12 wins via submission throughout his 12-year professional career, but Blaydes has never been submitted.