Curtis Blaydes on Derrick Lewis: 'I feel real good about my chances of getting him down'

UFC's No. 2-ranked heavyweight Curtis Blaydes is confident he'll be able to handle fourth ranked Derrick Lewis on Saturday at UFC Vegas 19.

Video Transcript

- Hey folks. I am Kevin Iole, and my guest now will be fighting Derrick Lewis in the main event of UFC Vegas on ESPN+ on Saturday, big heavyweight fight. The number two ranked heavyweight in the world, my man, Curtis Blaydes. How are you, Curtis?

- I'm fine, sir. How are you?

- I am doing awesome. Now, before we talk about your fight, I want to talk about an Instagram post you made and the reaction you had to another fight. I saw you posted yourself and some other people on the Elevation Fight Team who were watching Cory Sandhagen's fight with Frankie Edgar. And I thought you had a little funny reaction there. You kind of jumped up and were pretty excited about what Cory Sandhagen did to Frankie Edgar, weren't you?

- Yeah, I mean-- there's nothing like watching your teammate win like that. Like, when the stage is-- the stage, he's the main event, the stakes are high. And for him to get that flying [INAUDIBLE] as early as he did against a guy like Edgars, it's amazing.

- Did you ever think, like, you know, when you see that, do you think of your own fight, like, hey, what do I-- if I finish Derrick Lewis, in that kind of manner? Do you let yourself think that way?

- I mean, yeah. We all envision getting a win like Corey. But it doesn't happen often. That's why it was so amazing that he actually got it.

KEVIN IOLE: Right. Yeah. You're fighting-- as I mentioned, you're fighting Derrick Lewis. You're ranked second, he's ranked fourth. It would seem like the winner would fight right away for the heavyweight title since we got Ngannou versus Stipe Miocic at UFC 261. Obviously, that's not the case. So how do you deal with this, knowing that you've done pretty much everything you can do already? And it's like, you know, you're in a losing situation, to a certain degree. I mean, you're fighting guys like Derrick Lewis, who are dangerous. You've already done enough to get a championship shot. But you don't have that. So has it been tough to mentally deal with?

- It was initially. But, over the years, I've gotten older, I've matured, I understand this is a business. John Jones is-- he's a GOAT. And for him to pop up on the heavyweight, I know they want to maximize his earning potential. The best way to do that is for him to be in a title fight.

- You know, the interesting thing for you is, I mean, you're 14 and 2. Your only two losses are to Ngannou. So I would think the competitor in you-- and I know you're a competitor-- would want to fight Ngannou for the title because then that would right two wrongs: get you the belt, and also make up for those losses. But I wonder if you don't look at it and say, hey. I'd rather fight John Jones. He's considered the greatest fighter of all time. And if he beats Sipe, Francis winner, he's massive. So how do you look at it? Do you let yourself look down the road at it like that?

- I mean, I do a little bit. I look at it. Like, we all speculate. But, I've learned not to put too much into energy or emotional energy to unknowns. Like, things I don't have any direct control over. Like, who knows? What if Ngannou KO's Sipe. And then he KOs John? Or what if he beats Sipe, and then John beats him? It's just too much. So I don't put a lot of energy into it.

- The one thing that you can control is the way the fight goes. And obviously, you said against, that when you fought Volkov, that you were going to fight a certain way. You did it. You put him down. And it proved to be a wise decision, not only when the decision was enough and you won the fight, but also what we saw with Volkov [INAUDIBLE] we saw a reason why you fought that way. So I wonder, is it reasonable to expect against Derrick Lewis the fight is going to be the same way? Your goal is to put him on his back and make Derrick-- and Derrick try to get you off the top of him?

- Yeah. But I also, I like to get the finish. You always, you want the finish. And I think that Volkov was the outlier. And my game plan usually leads to a finish. When I get that many take downs, guys are usually gassed. They're smoked. But, he wasn't. Like, he's got great conditioning, great stamina. And he's got great fighter IQ. When we were on the bottom, he did a great job of controlling my wrist. He wasn't allowing me to give my elbows off.

And I was just, I was burning so much energy doing ineffective ground and pound. Now he knows the game plan. It took us until the fourth round of realized he was a roper doper. Like the Muhammad Ali. Like, he's like, OK. I'm just going to allow him to take you down. And I'm going to use my great guard, my great defensive jujitsu to survive, a skill he doesn't have [INAUDIBLE]. And it almost worked. It almost worked.

- Now, you're fighting Derrick Lewis. I mean, he's not the same fighter, but, he beat Alexey Oleinik the guy that you beat as well. But Oleinik is great on the ground. And he was able to get past him. So do you think it's a different fight anyways, even though he came off a win over a grappler like Oleinik did, that it will be a different fight between you and Derrick?

- No. The fact that Derrick Lewis allowed a 40-year-old, 225 pound man to take him down with such ease, it only makes me feel better about my prospects. Like, my take downs, and you can't stop Oleinik's take downs? What are you going to do with my take downs?

- Yeah, you're what? 6' 4", 260 pound heavyweight, a national champion wrestler.

- So. Yeah, I feel real good about my chances of getting him down. And I think, I mean, Oleinik, he could have won that fight had he not held onto that scarf on that-- I don't know the name of the submission that he had. But he held him for about two minutes.

KEVIN IOLE: Yeah. Burned himself out.

- You would think that a black belt like Oleinik would know, OK, this isn't working. Let me transition to something else. But he didn't. He just held on to it. And then he let Derrick survive [INAUDIBLE]. And now Derrick knows, like, oh. This guy can take me down, and get him out of here. And that's what happened.

- You know, your MMA career is very fascinating. I mean, you got to the UFC fairly quickly in your career. And you have had a very difficult journey on the way. I mean, you fought a lot-- you know, you fought Ngannou twice. I mean, a lot of really, really, really good guys. When you look back on the way it started, being kind of thrown into the fire like you were as a young fighter, new to MMA and in fighting top guys right off the bat, do you think that that made you the fighter you are today, that it hastened your development?

- Yeah. I think the biggest thing a lot of people ignore are the nerves. And the nerves are real. The nerves are there. But me, me going out there against Ngannou. Like, we can all agree, he hits the hardest. So he's like, the most, he's the scariest. Like, once you've been hit by him, like, nothing else is really that scary.

- You're downhill from there.

- Yeah. You're not going to put-- he couldn't put me to sleep. He TKO'd me in China. But I wasn't asleep. I wasn't out. I was just, my equilibrium was off. If he can't put me to sleep, no one put me to sleep.

- Right. Derrick has that big overhand right that he kind of throws sometimes. I mean, it's really quick. And I mean, it seems like you should be able to see that coming. And yet he still lands it on guys. Do you think it's because he's quick that he's able to land that thing?

- Yeah. He has a deceptive athleticism. I mean, he throws those [INAUDIBLE] the knees, or he throws that lead switch kick that leads into the overhand. It's a little athletic, it's a little fast. He kind of jumps at you. But, we also know he can only do it in spurts. That's not a [INAUDIBLE]. He's like a cheetah. It can sprint really, really fast. But not for that long.

KEVIN IOLE: Right.

- So. I'm more like a lion. Like, I'm not as fast. I'm going to consistently come at you over and over with the same aggression I had in the first round in the third round and the fourth round and the fifth round.

- When you talk about fast paced fights, I would say that anybody who's fought at all or grappled at all knows grappling probably wears you out the most, right? So it's one thing to throw punches at each other. It's another thing to do that grappling. So, you know, you feel like if you can wear Derrick down in the early fight then you'll set yourself up for a position where you might be able to finish him coming down the stretch?

- Yeah. Exactly. That's always the game plan. My game plan is universal. This is the game plan I'll use if I fight John Jones. This is the game plan I'll use Sipe. This is the game plan I'll use if I fight Francis again. Cause it almost worked in our first fight, my debut fight. And then, in China, he just caught me early. I wasn't able to really get into the game plan. I wasn't able to even get to his hips. Oh yeah. I believe in the game plan. I believe in my conditioning. I believe I can get on top of you and wear you down and land effective [INAUDIBLE]. And that's what I plan on doing.

- Do you know-- I want to get you to talk about Jones coming in to the heavyweight division and what is expected. Because you know, I've had some people who are really smart in MMA say, the most dangerous people to fight are the light heavyweights because they're big, but they're quicker and everything. And then other people have said, well, the heavyweights are stronger and they hit you with one punch and you're out. What do you think Jones is in for? You look at the top of the division, Sipe, Francis, yourself, [INAUDIBLE] is a big hitter. Derrick and Volkov are the top five plus the champion. What do you think John-- how do you think he fares as a heavyweight? And how does his skill set match up with the top of the division?

- I think against a guy like Sipe, it's pretty even. Like, Sipe's not the biggest heavyweight in the world. He's like, 6' 3", 245. John's going to be 6' 5", probably 240. So he's going to have-- they're going to be comparable in their physical statures. But skill wise, I think Sipe is more used to fighting large human beings, taking down large human beings, and getting punched by large human beings. He's been hit by a gun. He had a few strikes. John's not hitting like Ngannou. I don't know if John hits as hard as the rest of us heavyweights. But he's not hit-- I know he's not hitting as hard as Ngannou. So, I don't think he's going be able to KO a lot of heavyweights just with straight power. I think he'd have to rely on his creativity with striking and volume.

- You're 29 years old. You've been a heavyweight your entire career. How old were you when you first became a heavyweight?

- My whole life. Just--

- So never been anything but a heavyweight, huh?

- I've always been the big guy. You know how when you're were in grade school, and you get in line to go to the lunchroom and they do the small people in front and big people in back, I was always in back.

- Yeah, you would think if alphabetically, you would have come out OK. You would've gotten to eat first.

- Yeah. No, they did it by size.

- That's awesome. So, you know, I started this interview by mentioning the three guys that you potentially could face for the title down the road. Do you prefer any one of those three, Sipe, Francis or John?

- I have no preference. Like, they're all great. A win over any of them is like [INAUDIBLE].

- And finally, let's wrap up with this. What do you think, if you're able to beat Derrick Lewis, and then win the heavyweight championship, how does that change Curtis Blayde's life? Forget your career. But how does it change your life where you get up and you're now the UFC heavyweight champion?

- The opportunities that are given to a champion, or even a former champion are opportunities that are-- they just aren't there for guys who don't have that attached to their name. It's like, once you put that on your resume, you can do a lot. You can do a lot of stuff. A lot of jobs open up. A lot of sponsorships open up. I think it would just-- it would help me financially the most. And then career wise, it would be a major boost. I could use that to propel me into opening up a gym or just whatever. Just, once you have that attached to your name, former champion, like, people just see you in a different light.

- Well, we will see him first on Saturday against Derrick Lewis. That's going to be a tough fight. Curtis is the favorite to win that fight. Later, down the road, who knows? We may be seeing him in a heavyweight title fight. Curtis, I really appreciate you, brother. Thank you so much for all the time. Good luck on Saturday.

- Thank you, sir. I appreciate you having me on the show.

- Be well.