People went crazy with the "Blaydes is a lay-n-pray" artist narrative after the Volkov bout IMO. Don't get me wrong, that was an atrocious performance that was worthy of criticism. Dunno if it was a bad training camp, underlying medical/personal issue, Volkov unexpectedly coming in with shit-hot get-ups, or some combination of these. Regardless, he did what he had to to win the fight in fairly straightforward -- albeit not emphatic -- fashion.
In any case, acting like every fight looks like that for him is recency bias at its best. People seem to forget that in his previous bout he boxed up JDS on the feet to a TKO. Before that, he fucked up Shamil Abdurakhimov and finished him in Rd 2 with hellbows and punches.
Prior to that was his bout with Justin Willis. Yes, it went to Decision, but he scored a 30-25 on one judge's scorecard and 30-26 on another. He was picking Willis up and slamming him at will, showing no signs of gassing like he did in the Volkov bout. He also advanced to mount and rained down punches continuously, despite Justin fouling him by grabbing his glove (which led to some Khabib-esque trash talk while Blaydes mauling him). Blaydes rocked and dropped him on the feet in Rd 2. And I don't think I need to remind anyone of the murder he committed against Reem.
When you look at the numbers, Curtis's career finish rate is actually comparable to most wrestling stylists. The man has 10 KO/TKO victories (should be 11 if not for the bullshit cannabis NC from the Milstead bout, but it is what it is) in 14 wins. Not even half of his victories have gone to the scorecards.
Would I like to see him occasionally show some more urgency? Yeah. Maybe add a layer of submission offense to his game, or occasionally trust his always-improving striking (albeit without leaving his wheelhouse and going all Bangkok Ready).
And while I'm probably one of the biggest Curtis fans on Sherdog, I really facepalm when he pulls this shit on social media. I know he thinks he's "keeping it real", but I'd rather he just ignored the haters and just did his thing unapologetically, letting his performances do the talking. He's one of those guys who just isn't great with media at all excepting certain formats and situations where he actually comes across quite well. This isn't one of them. It seems like every time he posts he's putting his foot in his mouth.
