‘I’m not risking my ranking’ - Blaydes won’t rematch Aspinall

The UFC heavyweight is moving on from Aspinall after UFC London. 

Curtis Blaydes is uninterested in a rematch with Tom Aspinall despite the unfortunate ending of their fight at UFC London on Saturday.

Blaydes notched a 15-second TKO over Aspinall after the Team Kaobon product blew out his knee on a kick. Although he got the win, ‘Razor’ was frustrated with how the fight went.

“I have no idea what happened,” said Blaydes during his post-fight press conference (video provided by MMA Junkie). He landed the kick, I went to counter, he dropped. That’s all I know.”

Blaydes knew a win over Aspinall would get him one step closer to a championship opportunity, which would be his first since joining the promotion over six years ago. But before that could happen, the 31-year-old would like one more fight and has set his sights on the winner of Ciryl Gane vs. Tai Tuivasa at UFC Paris for his next appearance. And he has no interest in entertaining other options, including a rematch with Aspinall.

“I’m not risking my ranking,” said Blaydes. “I won the fight. Heading into this fight I envisioned the winner, which is me, the winner of this fight would be fighting the winner of Tuivasa and Gane. So I’m not going to pass up an opportunity to fight those guys when it’s right there to wait for Aspinall to heal and run it back.

“It doesn’t help me with the rankings at all, staying active,” continued Blaydes. “You don’t have to stay active. You have to beat highly ranked opponents. I’m going to wait for the winner. I will not be taking No. 8, No. 7 [or] No. 6 because it doesn’t help me. It helps them. I’m not looking to give any handouts.”

Blaydes is now on a three-fight win streak. The No. 4 heavyweight rebounded from a second-round KO loss to Derrick Lewis with wins over Jairzinho Rozenstruik and Chris Daukaus at UFC 266 and UFC Columbus, respectively.