With the news of Jon Jones moving to heavyweight, there have been discussions of who his first opponent would be. If the UFC wants it to be Curtis Blaydes, he says they will have to shell out the big bucks.
Blaydes is certainly in an interesting spot in the UFC’s heavyweight division. He has only ever lost to one man in his 17 professional fights, but the problem is that man is the number one contender in the division, Francis Ngannou. So while Francis prepares to fight Stipe Miocic, Curtis is looking to further establish himself as the next man up after that, when he takes on Derrick Lewis at this weekend’s UFC Vegas 15 event.
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Curtis Blaydes Is Not Interested In Jon Jones
One other person who has the potential to interfere with the title aspirations of Curtis Blaydes is former light heavyweight champ Jon Jones, who is making the move to heavyweight after vacating his title. Some have floated around the idea of Jon facing someone like Curtis in his debut, while the division’s next title fight takes place. However Curtis said in a recent interview that the only way he would be interested in risking his place in the contendership queue by facing Jon, is the UFC paid him a pretty penny.
“(It would take) a lot of money,” Blaydes said. “If I beat Derrick Lewis, I’ve already proven I’m next in line. So it’ll take a lot of money for me to jeopardize, because that’s what it would be. Me fighting Jon Jones when I don’t have to, that would be jeopardizing all the work I’ve done to put myself in a position to be the next title challenger. Yeah, there’s a way but only if the UFC comes at me with that kind of money.”
This does not exactly seem like the direction the UFC is interested in going with Jon Jones’s heavyweight debut, and Curtis Blaydes even admittedly said that the UFC has not approached him about it. However disappointing it may be though, Curtis may want to prepare himself for the possibility that he will not be getting the next shot at heavyweight gold.
