Exclusive: UFC star Curtis Blaydes discusses Aspinall, McGregor, Gane, Du Plessis and more

“Yeah, I'll be honest, I get why he does the stick because it's working. He's gaining popularity and fans, and I'm sure that means sponsors, and that's awesome for him because that's what this is about; getting sponsors, getting money, providing for whoever, it all depends on you.

“I'm not hating on that, but like the whole stick, I think it's annoying. I think it's a little disrespectful, like how he was doing the whole trauma on your mama, that whole stick. I don't like it. I think in MMA, we don't need to have these WWE types of personalities.

“I think in men's sport you can gain fans like Rob Whittaker or GSP, or there's been countless guys who've been able to build their fan bases based on the strength of their performances in the octagon.

“It doesn't have anything to do with the stick, but again, like I said, I get it because this is a different era and it brings eyes to the sport. I just wish it didn't. I wish that it wasn't like that, but you would be a liar if you said it wasn't effective.

“I haven't looked at his Instagram, but I've had other people tell me that he's blowing up. Like, he must be around 350,000 subscribers now, which is a huge jump, so it would be hard to tell a guy like Hokit, ‘you gotta pull it in’, or 'you gotta slow down,' and he's like, 'Why? It's working.' So yeah.”

“I mean, a potential rematch is something.

“I'm interested, but I don't believe that's the very next thing for me on the horizon. I could see it happening, but I don't think it would happen right now unless he's getting pushed.

“I believe they want him to have a title fight, so maybe if, god forbid, he wins the belt and then I get a title shot, I would love that.

“I would love to run it back with him, but that's not my main driving purpose. That's not what wakes me up in the morning to go work out.

“I just want to get better every day. It’s harder the longer that you're in a sport, any sport, to have exponential growth. That's not the goal for me. I just want to get 1% better every day, and as long as I'm doing that, I'm fully confident that I will earn another title shot and we'll get that rematch. But it's not on the top of my mind, no.”

“Honestly, I am still a little bit in shock that this is actually happening because you hear about these types of rumors all the time.

“It almost gives me the vibes of when the UFC was able to talk GSP into coming back against Bisping. I was actually on that card, and you don't believe it until you actually see GSP on the scale or McGregor on the scale. It's just hard to believe.

“I'm happy to see it. I get that it helps, it brings eyes onto the sport. This has been a great year for pay-per-views, and this card does have a shot to be better than the White House card or the card I was on in Miami. It does have the potential, which is again great for business.

“I’m gonna be honest, I don't believe he has that hunger anymore. I don't believe he's hungry the way that you need to be in order to beat a guy like Holloway.

“You gotta get up early, you gotta get in the runs, you gotta get the bag work in, you gotta get those extra grappling sessions in.

“Is he in a place where he feels like, yeah, I gotta get up, I gotta do that? Or is he at a place where he wakes up, he looks at the alarm, he looks around in his $5 billion house, and he's like, yeah, maybe I'll just sleep in an extra half an hour.

“I still believe he's putting in the work. I just don't believe he's attacking it with that same fervor. I'll be honest, there are days I wake up and I'm older and my body just hurts, and there are days where I'm like, you know what, this has to be a rest day. Or a day where I know we have to bring it down a notch.

“This has to be like a light drill day, and that's me as a heavyweight. I can only imagine how his body feels. But then again, you have to counter that with other arguments.

“He has the money and the resources to hire the best massage therapists and all that, he can get the best food, the best hydration, the best anything. But then again, to counter that, how hungry is he? Does he want to put in all that work? I just don’t know.

“I believe Holloway is hungrier. He's a lot more active, doesn't have that ring rust. McGregor, he's been out for 5 years. That's a long time. I've never had a break anywhere near that long. I had a break for 9 months and that was long. Even with 9 months out, I could feel a bit of the ring rust. I can only imagine it with McGregor.

“I just believe Holloway's the slightly better striker, I think, technically. He doesn't make any mistakes. Defensively he's smarter, he doesn't take the same risk, or when he does take risks, they're high reward.

“I believe that he's a better grappler. Even if McGregor does hit a big one, Holloway has that in his back pocket too, and that's powerful.

“When you as a fighter have the knowledge that, ‘hey, I can take this guy down whenever I want’, that's a powerful thing to have. Then you look at things cardio-wise, McGregor, even when he was in the smaller weight classes, he's never been a guy with a great gas tank, and this is a five-round fight.

“It makes a huge difference. If McGregor wins, it has to be within the first 7 and a half minutes of the fight. I think after that, Holloway will control it.

“With Holloway; there's a reason he has all the records for significant strikes landed, attempted, absorbed, all that.

“He has all those types of stats because that's how he fights. He's not hunting the knockout. It might happen, but he's not hunting it.

“McGregor's going to be hunting it, and I believe Holloway will just avoid the big shots in the first round, and then in the second round he’ll start picking up steam, landing a few more shots.

“The third round could be the same again, then I think by the fourth round, McGregor will have slowed down to the point where he's almost like a moving punching bag.

“I think Holloway is going to start teeing off, and I don't think it'll be one big power shot at McGregor. I think it'll just be an accumulation of strikes, and it'll be like a TKO. That’s the way that I see it.”

“I don't believe this will be the end for Paddy, but I do believe that he'll lose.

“I think Paddy's striking acumen and BSD's striking acumen are almost equal, which is to say that their striking for the weight class is slightly below average. Analyzing how they use their jabs to set up hooks and stuff, there isn’t a whole lot of that to analyze because they're both phenomenal grapplers.

“That's why I think the biggest advantage for BSD is that Paddy isn't a great takedown artist. He’s great when he gets on the mat, but that's the issue, how do you get on the mat? I don't think he's going to be able to take down BSD.

“Paddy might even have to resort to pulling guard and usually, when that happens, I feel like psychologically you've already lost because you are putting yourself on your back in a fight, and that's just how I've always viewed it.

“As you pull guard, you're almost mentally submitting because you're just hitting like, ‘ah, I don't know how to get this guy on the mat, I hope he just hops in my guard’.

“That's what I think is going to happen.

“I think BSD is going to be able to aggressively pressure Paddy and I think he'll be able to catch him with a slick overhand or slick uppercut, and I think he'll get the finish, but that doesn't mean that Paddy's career is going to be finished.

“I think Paddy is still a phenomenal grappler, and his hands are getting better. I could be wrong; he could come into this fight with vastly improved striking. I just don't believe that's what's going to happen, but I could be wrong.

“If he does lose, it could be a good thing for him in a weird way. He'll take off the rest of the year, just focus on his hands. That’s how you beat up Paddy, you beat him up on his feet, and if he isn't able to take you down, you just keep on beating him up.”

“I hadn't even thought about that.

“Paddy and McGregor on the same card and the potential of them scrapping down the line, but you just said something about Paddy hoping to move up weight classes.

“That's 100% something I could see.

“Paddy, that man blows up in weight between fights, and I'm sure it'll be a whole hell of a lot easier for him to cut down to welterweight as opposed to lightweight. You’ve got the whole Irish v Liverpool thing going on, too.

“I'm sure that also adds to the potential hype, him having such a large fan base and McGregor having a huge fan base, I'm sure the UFC would love that.

“It promotes itself, they wouldn't even have to do anything. I’d watch it, yeah, that'd be cool.”

“I was hoping you were going to bring up (Charles) Oliveira and Arman (Tsarukyan), because they’re the two I believe who deserve the next title shot.

“I think Gaethje will hang out, enjoy the rest of the year and he’ll face the winner of Arman versus Oliveira. I think they both deserve a shot at the belt, but I like the idea of having them to have to fight it out.

“McGregor is also a potential if he's able to get a spectacular win against Holloway.

“I know Gaethje personally. He told me years ago that he wants to beat the hell out of McGregor, and he also knows that that will make him so much money. If we're just talking financially, McGregor's who you want. But if we're talking meritocracy, then it should be the winner of Arman and Oliveira.

“Either way, Gaethje wins.”

“There’s a few other guys in that conversation; that isn’t being disrespectful or rude to Aspinall. It's the heavyweight division, so we have a lot of heavy hitters.

“I would say the top 3 heaviest hitters that we can debate from there are (Francis) Ngannou, Derrick Lewis and Mark Hunt. I know Hunt's retired, but he hits hard as f***.

“Pavlovich is another to add to that list. I went against Pavlovich. I know Tom has a win over him as well, but Pavlovich, he's one of the heaviest hitters I've ever gone against. I think the actual heaviest would probably have to be Ngannou.

“I think there's no one else on the planet able to generate the amount of force that he can, and I'll be honest, I've rewatched those fights over and over, and Ngannou doesn't have the best technique.

“He's not turning his hips over. His feet are always pointed in the right direction, it doesn't matter, he just hits, he just has a blessing, when he hits you, you usually go to sleep and that's not to say Tom doesn't hit hard, but he's not hitting as hard as those other guys I mentioned.”

“I'm not gonna ever hate on anyone within the MMA community being able to get their money, like, great, I want to do that also. After I've been released from the UFC in like 5 or 6 years, I would love to ride off into the sunset and have a boxing match. That would be so dope.

“The money, we all know that with boxing, it pays a lot, and a guy like Jon Jones versus Usyk, I can't even imagine how much they would offer him, but I would watch it.

“I actually believe that Jon would win that fight. I don't know, he has a shot. He's very smart, one of the smartest within the octagon fighters.

“The way he blends the jabs with the elbows, he's a master technician, and yeah, this is boxing, so he wouldn't have all the weapons that he usually uses, but I don't think that would be that hard for him.

“I think he would figure it out. He's just that good.

“Do I believe, hands down, that Jones would win that? I don't know, I'm not into gambling, but I would think the odds would be split. I think both have an equal opportunity to win that.

“I'll be happy for Jon and happy for the sport, it brings eyes. That's how you keep people invested in your sport. You got to have names like that fighting each other.”

“Honestly? Anybody.

“It's not even about the name. I will box anybody for X amount, you know, $5 million. Hell yeah, I'll box you. It doesn't matter, I'll box anybody.

“I don't have any ego because it's not like my main sport. It's almost like the RAF, the Wrestling Federation here in the States.

“I would wrestle anybody because, again, it's not MMA, it's not like my main sport. Yeah, I'm great at wrestling, I like my boxing, it's pretty good, but as long as you're paying me, I have no ego.

“I'll go against the best of the best, I'll go against the worst of the worst, I'll go against a YouTuber, an Instagrammer, whatever, because it's just about getting money.

“At this stage of my career where I'm closer to the end than I am to the beginning, it's really just about getting money. There isn't anyone who I would not compete against in either one of those sports.”

“I didn’t hop on the ‘Gane is a dirty fighter’ train after the Aspinall fight, but he has had an incident in almost every fight.

“I think someone made a compilation, and he's had an illegal type of strike in almost every fight that he's had in the UFC.

“The back of the head stuff, I think it had a huge impact on how he was able to beat Volkov. I think Volkov, if they have a rematch, I'm taking him in that fight.

“I think Ciryl Gane has more than earned his reputation as a dirty fighter because I don't believe he does it with malice in his heart. I believe he just doesn't care.

“He's like, ‘hey, if you get poked or if I hit you in the balls or if the punch hit you in the back of your head, whatever, it's not my fault’, but it is your fault because you're the one doing the striking, you're supposed to be a professional.

“He is skilled, obviously, so we can tell he should have the control to be able to know if that's the back of the opponent’s head, or if he knows it’s a punch he shouldn’t throw.

“He knows, he just doesn't care. I'm not trying to pile on Herb Dean, the referee for Gane’s fight at the White House, but he missed it.

“He allowed Gane to land maybe 7 illegal strikes to the back of the head, and regardless of the weight, but especially heavyweight, that's gonna have a huge effect on the outcome of the fight.

“I'm not saying he won only because of strikes, I'm not saying that. A lot of his wins aren’t only because of the illegal strikes, but they do have an impact. They do allow him to fight more carelessly because at this point he understands that he might get away with it.

“There are some guys, for example, in the NBA who they will allow to break the rules, whether offense or defense, whether it's with their physicality or traveling with the ball.

“There are certain guys who, after a year in the league, they can tell, oh, the refs aren't gonna call this. It gives them an extra avenue to be great or to score or to stop scoring, and when you're talking about the best of the best, allowing someone to have even a small advantage like that, it's too big sometimes for their opponents to overcome.

“With Gane, especially after the last fight, he's gotten away with so many illegal things now. He’s earned a reputation.

“I don't think he's a bad human, but he has to be able to observe and hear. He knows, he hears the talk, he sees all the memes, and he doesn't care. I guarantee you, whoever he fights next, he's going to do an illegal strike, because that’s just who he is now.”

“They've already had a little bit of octagon time.

“I'm leaning towards Aspinall, I want Aspinall to win, but it does help that he's already been able to feel Gane’s speed and he's been able to feel his range.

“Just by having that first fight, a lot of the unknowns, even after just over 4 minutes, you know now. That's what causes a lot of anxiety, you want to know, ‘how fast is his overhand’? ‘How fast is his in and out’? Does he slip a lot? Does he parry?

“You've already gotten that initial first round out of the way. I know it wasn't a whole round, but you got it out of the way.

“Aspinall understands now that Gane actually is faster than you think. I think that's what caught him off guard initially, like just Gane’s initial in and out. He's very skilled at it, and I think it caught Tom off guard.

“That’s not going to happen this time. I hope he uses his grappling because, isn't he a black belt in jiu-jitsu? That's what I heard.

“He should use the clinch, do all the stuff that Gane doesn't enjoy. He doesn't enjoy being on the ground. He doesn't enjoy being tied up. He wants space, he wants to be able to dance. He wants to be able to do all the slick stuff.

“If I'm Tom, whatever you don't want to do, that's what we're doing. That means I'm pushing up against the cage. I'm not hunting takedowns, and I'm going to be opportunistic.

“If he’s just standing there square, you gotta scare him, you gotta punish him for not respecting the grappling aspect of MMA, and I think Tom's a smart guy,

“I think he is going to blend in the grappling and be a little more aggressive in the clinch just to slow down Gane initially. He doesn't have to do it the whole fight, just that first round, I think he will and I still believe in Tom.

“I know a lot of people have hopped off the bandwagon, not any of the Brits, of course, but like around the world a lot of people like, ‘Yo, Gane was smashing him in the first round.’ I'm like, ‘okay, that was one round’.

“People lose a round and then win the fight all the time, but I'm not hopping off the bandwagon. I am a fan.

“I do believe Gane also has great speed, he also has great footwork. He was able to get to his gameplan first and that's awesome for him that he was able to do that, I just don't believe that he'll be able to do that in the rematch.”

“Whether or not he deserves it, I don't think that really matters in the UFC.

“We've seen countless times over and over that the rankings— I mean, the old rankings, don't mean as much as we would like them to mean as fans and as actual athletes within the sport.

“I was number 5 going against Hokit, an unranked guy, and before that, I took on Rizvan Kuniev, unranked guy, UFC debut.

“The rankings, they don't mean what we thought they meant. It’s easier to sell some fights, with the hype and everything.

“You have to look at overall records too; Du Plessis already has 2 wins over Sean Strickland. That makes it easier for the UFC to do their job, do the marketing. The hype is already there; it shows. Du Plessis, he's very good. It was hard to give him a rematch after he kind of got exposed in the grappling by Chimaev.

“I was at that one in Chicago. I saw he was getting manhandled and he didn't have an answer.

“Every time he got put in that crucifix, he looked helpless. I'm not saying he is helpless, but in those exchanges, in those situations, he looked like a white belt, he didn’t know what to do.

“That lets you know the quality of guys he gets to grapple against in training, it must not be that good. I guess I wouldn't hate it if he got a rematch, but in terms of being deserving, it’s a tough one.

“it's hard to speak on who deserves what, like, what happens for Gaethje next? Arman arguably deserves to be the next title fight, but that's not how it works.

“The UFC is probably going to make Arman get past Oliveira because they would rather it be Oliveira versus Gaethje. It is a business, we have to factor that in, and I think that's what they're doing right here right now.

“I'm sure the UFC would be happy either way. Usman wins, great. Dricus wins, great. Either way, they're both guys that are easy to promote, and they will both put on a great fight regardless. I think it's a win-win for them, but do I actually believe Dricus is going to win?

“He should win just because he's a little younger, a little bigger, but after seeing that hole in his grappling ability, to get exposed so badly with that, I think Usman has a shot.

“If he can get to his takedowns and he doesn't have to burn a lot of energy, you have to burn a little bit, if he doesn't have to overly exert himself to get the takedowns.

“I don't think Dricus has the technique to get up the right way, and I think Usman can almost rinse and repeat the Chimaev game plan, take down every round and just sit there in a good position, not using that much energy, then you can win the fight by decision.”