Curtis Blaydes is looking for a fight that will earn him a title shot next.
Blaydes made it two wins in a row after his dominant TKO victory over Shamil Abdurakhimov at UFC 242 in Abu Dhabi.
It followed his dominant decision win over Justin Willis earlier in the year as the Chicago native appears to be one more win away from getting that elusive title shot. However, he doesn’t have any interest in fighting former heavyweight champion Cain Velasquez.
Velasquez returned to action earlier this year for the first time since 2016 but was promptly knocked out by Francis Ngannou in the first round. The American Kickboxing Academy product also blew his knee out during the fight and just seeing all that, Blaydes doesn’t feel Velasquez is up to the challenge of fighting anymore.
“Nah. Physically seeing him, I don’t think he’s really physically up to doing this anymore,” Blaydes told James Lynch of theScore during UFC Vancouver this past weekend. “And that’s no shade. His body has been through wars and injuries and setbacks.
“I’m going to leave that alone. I’m looking forward to the Junior [dos Santos] vs. [Alexander] Volkov fight. Hopefully, I get the winner of that one.”
Velasquez has been through a lot of wars and injuries but seems to have found a new lease on life with his professional wrestling ventures.
What in the world? Cain Velasquez hits a springboard lethal injection #InvadingNY pic.twitter.com/RCgGZJORfN
— Marc Raimondi (@marcraimondi) September 16, 2019
But despite all the fun and enjoyment he is having in the squared circle, Velasquez claimed he wasn’t done with mixed martial arts yet.
“Yes, I will (fight again),” Velasquez said on Ariel Helwani’s MMA Show last week (via MMA Mania). “Unless someone else tells me otherwise. I would love to fight again, but I want to keep doing this [professional wrestling] as well.
“I think it would be possible (to do both). If both organizations are okay with it. Obviously I think I am an asset to both, so we will see what happens with that.”
If that is the case, maybe we could end up seeing a fight between Velasquez and Blaydes in the future after all.