In the main event of the UFC on ESPN 11, Curtis Blaydes defeated Alexander Volkov.
Blaydes’ Takedown Record
The American recorded 14 takedowns in this fight, setting a new UFC heavyweight record. He was all over Volkov in the first three rounds, not allowing the Russian to stand on his feet. Though, we need to say that he wasn’t hurting him at all, and that there weren’t any heavy punches from his side.
At the end of the night, the judges scored all in his favor, (49-46, 48-47, 48-46), even though he had a significant slowdown in the fourth round.
That is when Volkov (31-8 MMA, 5-2 UFC) bounced back with several solid hits, which damaged Blaydes (14-2 MMA, 9-2 UFC) a little bit. He would end the round with blood coming out from his lip, and also, breathing heavily.
In those moments, it looked like Volkov takes control, but Blaydes gave everything he had in the fight to stop his surge and get out with a victory.
“Volkov was a lot harder than I thought to take down,” Blaydes said after the fight. “He had big, strong legs. When I got to the thighs and the legs, I’m usually able to win there. He was really strong.”
Blaydes was a massive favorite coming into this event, and the bookies didn’t give to many chances to the Russian fighter. Yet, we can’t say that that he fully justified that prognosis. He wasn’t that dominant, even though he did hold Volkov on the ground for quite some time.
This is the fourth straight win for Blaydes, who defeated Junior dos Santos, Shamil Abdurakhimoc and Justin Willis before this one. Apart from losing to Ngannou in November 2018, he has beaten Alistair Overeem, Mark Hunt and Aleksei Oleinik in the last three and a half years.
Meanwhile, Volkov lost his second in the previous three, and both of those failures were pretty tight.
Going Against the UFC
After the battle, Blaydes spoke about his current position in the UFC, and he called out the organization on several accounts. As we said, he mentioned himself and how he deserves a title shot, but also added some remarks on the fighters’ financial status.
All this couldn’t go without a response, and the UFC president, Dana White replied to Razor as the fans call him.
White stated that Blaydes’ focus should be on the octagon, and also stressed that he won’t get the chance to fight for the title because Francis Ngannou holds that right.
The Predator defeated Blaydes on two occasions, and that is White’s biggest excuse for not allowing him a chance to challenge the best heavyweights. However, there is also one more thing that prevents both from competing for the belt.
Stipe Miocic and Daniel Cormier are yet to have their third clash this fall, and until this happens, all the talks about any other fights in this division (which concern the belt) are off the table.
