Curtis Blaydes finally surfaced after that insane UFC 327 war with Josh Hokit, and he kept it short like a guy who already said everything with his face.
A couple of days after their three-round heavyweight banger in Miami, Blaydes posted his first public reaction and made it clear he knows exactly what kind of lunatic he was stuck in there with.
“Emptied the clip, threw the gun,” Blaydes wrote on Instagram. “That SOB is tougher to kill than he looks.”
For a fight that left Blaydes with a broken nose, a fractured orbital bone, and a trip straight to a local hospital, that line said plenty. The damage from the Hokit fight was already serious enough, but Blaydes still sounded more impressed than bitter.
That tracks with what happened in the cage. Blaydes and Hokit went full heavyweight chaos for three rounds and combined for more than 350 landed strikes, with both men having moments where it looked like the finish was right there. Instead, they kept walking through hell until the horn. Hokit got the decision, but this was one of those fights where the loser did not leave with less respect. If anything, both guys walked out with more.
“Did we save heavyweight chat?” he wrote.
Curtis Blaydes and Josh Hokit gave heavyweight a badly needed jolt
That one hits because heavyweight has taken plenty of grief lately for thin depth, inactivity, and too many fights that never live up to the booking. Then these two maniacs showed up and gave the division a reminder that it can still produce pure violence when the right matchup lands.
Blaydes may be shelved for a while because of the injuries, but Hokit already looks set to cash in on the momentum. Hokit is already booked to face Derrick Lewis on the UFC White House card, and that only got hotter after UFC 327. He later said he avoided major damage, which is pretty ridiculous on its own considering the kind of fight he just survived.
That is what makes Blaydes’ reaction land. He did not try to spin the result, make excuses, or dress it up with fake positivity. He basically said he emptied everything he had and the other guy kept coming anyway. In heavyweight terms, that is about as honest as it gets.
Blaydes is probably out longer than Hokit, and that part obviously sucks for him, especially with the division moving fast around him. But if he was asking whether they saved heavyweight talk for a night, the answer is yes. They absolutely did. One guy left with the win, the other left with a smashed face, and both of them left with a fight people are still talking about days later.
