Curtis Blaydes will look to land his 14th career win inside the Octagon on March 8 at UFC 313.
Originally, ‘Razor’ was scheduled to square off with Rizvan Kuniev at Saturday’s critically acclaimed fight card in Seattle. However, their bout was pushed back a couple of weeks with little to little explanation from the promotion in regards to why.
Speaking with James Lynch in a MiddleEasy exclusive interview, Blaydes revealed that the reason for the delay was due to an injury on Kuniev’s end.
“All I was told is my opponent got injured and I guess whatever the injury was, they gave him a few extra weeks,” Blaydes said. “It doesn’t really bother me at all. It’s easier for me to fly from Denver to Vegas than Seattle and I still have the advantage of [fighting] in a lower altitude so I’m alright with it.”
UFC 313 will be Kuniev’s promotional debut after scoring an impressive first-round knockout over Hugo Cunha on Dana White’s Contender Series last year. The win extended the Russian’s current win streak to 11. But despite boasting a 13-2 record and a nearly-70% finish rate, Blaydes is far from impressed by the footage he’s seen.
“He’s a standard heavyweight,” Blaydes said. “We all swing hard and I don’t see any fancy footwork. He’s not [Ciryl] Gane. He’s not [Tom] Aspinall. He’s not Alexander [Volkov]. He’s not those guys, but he is a heavyweight, he swings hard, and he likes to make fights ugly. And me being a wrestler, that plays into me so I like the matchup.”
As for how he sees things playing out against the heavy-hitting Russian, Curtis Blaydes expects Kuniev to get a little too ambitious and make a fatal error.
“I see him coming at me—blitzing at me and trying to get it over with real fast and either he walks into something like what I did to [Chris] Daukaus or he walks into a takedown and I elbow him into the shadow realm,” Blaydes added.
Curtis Blaydes Offers His Take on Jon Jones’ Latest Viral Video and the Controversial Ending to Cejudo vs. Song at UFC Seattle
While discussing some of the recent goings-on in the world of mixed martial arts, Blaydes was asked about a viral Instagram Live clip from undisputed UFC heavyweight champion Jon Jones. In the middle of the night, ‘Bones’ went live and delivered a rather concerning rant.
Jon Bones Jones went live on Instagram at 2:54 am
“You go on a trip, and get p*ssed off, disappointed. And as a Dad, you just wanna kill ‘em.”#UFC | #MMA pic.twitter.com/9nIq2cmVn4
— Delinquent MMA (@DelinquentMMA) February 15, 2025
“Yeah, I heard something about it but didn’t see it,” Blaydes said when asked about the video. “We’re used to this with Jon Jones. He’s always doing something. Like the most outrageous stuff. Why are you going on Instagram Live and saying you’re going to hurt people? I don’t understand.”
The video now has everyone once again second-guessing whether or not a long-awaited title unification clash between Jones and interim heavyweight champion Tom Aspinall will ever happen. Asked who he sees being Aspinall’s next opponent, Curtis Blaydes ultimately believes it’ll be Ciryl Gane, but he wouldn’t be mad about seeing Aspinall vs. Alexander Volkov in the near future.
“I think Volkov is better than Gane so I would not hate it if it went to Volkov,” Blaydes said.
Last but not least, Blaydes offered his take on the controversial ending of Saturday’s UFC Seattle headliner. Near the end of the third round, Henry Cejudo suffered a rather nasty albeit unintentional eye poke from his opponent, Song Yadong. ‘Triple C’ took the full five minutes of recovery time and made it through the last bit of the round, but made it clear to his corner that he couldn’t see out of his left eye.
As a result, the fight was stopped and Song was awarded the win via technical decision since the fight had already reached the halfway point.
Cejudo-Song was stopped after the fourth round continued and was taken into decision after the three rounds due to eye pokes that rendered Cejudo unable to continue.
Song Yadong won by technical decision. #UFCSeattle pic.twitter.com/TzsouoAo6m
— ESPN MMA (@espnmma) February 23, 2025
Some suggested that Cejudo was simply looking for a way out of the contest and possibly thought the bout would be ruled a no-contest due to the eye poke. However, Blaydes finds that hard to believe.
“Seeing it in real time, it’s always different than when you look at the replay and they slow it down,” Blaydes said. “It looks way more painful and in the after photos it looked like he had a scratched [cornea]. I’ve been poked in the eye and I know sometimes people think it’s stupid, but sometimes if you get poked at the right angle, it can mess you up.
“I’m not gonna give no excuses. Eye pokes happen all the time and when it happens, you don’t stop. You keep sparring because you want to get used to it. So am I gonna say [Cejudo] was looking for a way out? I don’t know. I’m not gonna attack his manhood like that. Especially with a resume like that. He must have been legitimately hurt.”
Watch the full exclusive interview below:
