Curtis Blaydes getting a raw deal

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The UFC are constantly trying to keep this guy away from a title fight. Yes, he has a black eye on his record with a KO loss to Derrick Lewis, but he's 3-0 again since that loss. He clearly deserves to fight for the title far more than Stipe Miocic, but my guess is the UFC will keep him as far from Jon Jones as they can.

Isn't he in a #1 contender fight?

 

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Blaydes v Pav will somehow be a snoozer which egg head will use as an excuse to make Jones v Stipe 2

Instead of eliminating 1 or 2 contenders they should have blaydes and pav lined up next for Jones regardless

Stipe vs Jon is the rightful fight to make since Ngannou is stumbling around in purgatory.

 

[JKS]

That's a legitimate question which will be answered in April when they fight. All I'm saying is that the winner of Pavlovich/Blaydes should be fighting Jon Jones next, not 40 year old Stipe that hasn't fought in two years.

Well there is more to "should be" then just then just who deserves it more based on winning streak and recent performance. Stipe hasn't fought in two years and lost his last fight, yes. However, there is the factor of legacy to consider and promotional ability. Stipe has built his name and his status as the great UFC HW of all time, not to mention, this fight is a promoters dream, divisional goats and is pretty much a once in a lifetime fight. So all that counts for something.

In the end the UFC will put together the biggest fight. Stipe/Jones is actually one of the biggest fight in promotional history. Blaydes/Sergei or any other contenders will always be there. This fight wont.

 

[Dave Poodle]

Stipe's one of my favorite heavyweights but at this point I'd be more interested in Jones taking on Blaydes or Pavlovich. He was noticably slower against DC in 2020 and got flatlined by Francis 2 years ago. He's been silent since then and went full time as a fire fighter. If he'd come back and got a win I could get behind this but at this point it just seems like they want to use Stipe's UFC HW GOAT status to boost Jon.

After all these years of talk about Jon moving to heavyweight it's just unfortunate he's gone up right when the division is at it's least interesting point I can remember.