Not too long ago, Curtis Blaydes feared the consequences of winning.
Blaydes, the UFC’s fourth-ranked heavyweight contender, has been a rising mixed martial arts star for some time. But with the post-victory interviews came apprehension.
That’s because the Golden resident has dealt with a lifelong battle to overcome his own fears, and others’ negative perceptions, associated with his stutter.
“Initially, I dreaded the interviews more than I was nervous for the actual fight,” Blaydes said. “It would be like, ‘Oh (damn), I won, now I’ve got to do an interview.’ And I had to get over that, because if you expect to win, that means you expect to do interviews.
“Growing up in Chicago, kids were mean. They can be mean everywhere, but there’s a special type of meanness in the cities. … Obviously having a speech impediment, that’s easy ammo, and I had to get over that, too.”
Combatting misunderstanding
Blaydes’ stutter drew him to wrestling, where on the mat his imposing frame and uncanny athleticism helped him bridge the gap between who he really is and what people falsely assumed about him because of his speech impediment.
According to SAY, the Stuttering Association for the Young, about 5% of young children and approximately 1% of all people stutter.
SAY executive director Noah Cornman says that Blaydes is the type of high-profile person who can combat the misunderstanding of stuttering as well as give hope to kids with the neurologic disability.
Blaydes, who appeared at SAY’s 2022 benefit gala and has been in talks with the organization to bring a SAY event to the Denver area, explains that many “don’t understand that stuttering has nothing to do with a person’s intelligence.” That’s why for much of his youth, Blaydes avoided speaking in school.
“Curtis is (bringing awareness) simply by talking about it at all, and by embracing it,” Cornman said. “Stuttering remains fairly stigmatized. There’s definitely not as much understanding of stuttering amongst kids, and amongst adults, too. But to see him confident in being who he is, and getting in front of the camera, that’s a really inspiring thing for a young person who stutters.
“Sadly, bullying of people who stutter is accepted by too many, and it doesn’t have the same understanding as a lot of other differences. That’s part of what someone like Curtis and (SAY spokesman and Blue Jays outfielder) George Springer are able to do, is to help us with the education part of it.”
Becoming a heavyweight force
As Blaydes grew more comfortable with the limelight, he also morphed into one of the UFC’s best heavyweights. Blaydes is 18-4 since turning pro in 2014, and 13-4 since joining the UFC in 2016.
When he started in the UFC, he was a pure wrestler with no sense for striking or any other MMA discipline. A former junior college wrestling national champion at Harper College, Blaydes’ one-dimensional fighting was quickly exposed in his UFC debut when he was TKO’d by Francis Ngannou.
After that fight, Blaydes moved to Colorado and began training with Elevation Fight Team at two different gyms, High Altitude Martial Arts in Denver and Vital Training Systems in Wheat Ridge. The move jump-started Blaydes’ evolution into a well-rounded mixed martial artist now capable of striking with the UFC’s best.
“He didn’t always have the best attitude when he first started training,” recalls Vinnie Lopez, the founder of Vital and one of Blaydes’ two coaches. “You could tell he was a guy who got by on strictly talent and talent alone. So trying to get him to understand that he’s now in a place where everyone’s talented, and everyone has the same physical attributes that you do, was a bit of a process.
“But now, he’s dominating big names in such a way that he’s starting to believe what could be possible for him. When you get a guy like that with that type of physical prowess and technical skill level, and now he’s got the belief to go along with it — now is when we’re going to see who Curtis Blaydes actually is.”
Blaydes’ shot at the belt
To Lopez’s point, Blaydes is on the doorstep of a crack at the interim title belt, currently held by Tom Aspinall.
Blaydes’ next fight — and whether he’ll get a shot at Aspinall, whose lone UFC defeat is to Blaydes — will be determined by a variety of factors.
For one, there’s the status of the heavyweight belt, currently held by UFC all-timer Jon Jones. “Bones” hasn’t fought since claiming the title in a win over Ciryl Gane in March 2023, as he’s undergone a pair of surgeries on a torn pectoral muscle as well as his elbow.
As he’s been working his way back, Jones tweeted his intention for his next fight is to take on another UFC legend in Stipe Miocic, who was scheduled to duel Jones in UFC 295 last November before he suffered his pectoral injury. UFC boss Dana White also said that Jones versus Miocic could happen this summer, though Jones recently teased the possibility of fighting Aspinall or reigning light heavyweight champion Alex Pereira.
All that uncertainty’s left Aspinall, who claimed the interim belt at UFC 295, playing the waiting game.
It’s possible Blaydes could get a rematch against Aspinall, who suffered a knee injury just 15 seconds into their first fight, at UFC 304 in Manchester, England, on July 27. Aspinall has said he wants that rematch. Should Blaydes beat Aspinall there or on another card, he’d get the interim belt and would be first in line for a crack at the title. Should Blaydes fight someone else and win, he’d still be right in the mix for his fight after that to be for the belt.
Biggest fights ahead
As Blaydes’ coaches point out, the heavyweight’s stutter plays into all of these projections. They believe the UFC considers him less marketable than other fighters.
“These guys have to be entertaining, they have to have a fan base, they have to sell more tickets, and that will always be a factor in determining title fights,” said Cody Donovan, the owner of High Altitude and Blaydes’ other coach.
“You either have to have a big mouth, you have to be the most technical, or you have to create a spectacle of violence with brutal, bloody knockouts. Curtis has got one realm. He has to go out there and smash people, and it’s got to be violent. Because there’s no question, the UFC would rather have a Jones or an Aspinall behind that microphone. So Curtis has to focus on his performance.”
Blaydes, who has eight UFC victories by KO/TKO, has delivered. Especially since his first-round KO loss to Sergei Pavlovich last spring, when Blaydes admits he was “very distracted” during camp by a custody dispute over his 5-year-old daughter, who now lives in Texas.
The heavyweight says being separated from his daughter continues to be difficult, but he’s made a conscious decision to focus on what he can control in his everyday life. The result of that perspective shift was a bounce-back win in his last fight — a second-round KO of Jailton Almeida after Almeida took down Blaydes nine times in the first round.
“He saw the writing on the wall after the last loss,” said fighter Zac Pauga, Blaydes’ main training partner. “He’s been a guy who’s gotten near the top several times, and lost and fallen down and had to work his way back. So he knew the situation he was in: If he loses again, he’s on his way out (of the UFC). Maybe not immediately, but it would be a string of hard fights from there. That really lit a fire under him and gave him a level of focus and dedication to everything in and outside of the gym.”
Whatever comes next, “Razor” Blaydes believes he’s in the best position he’s ever been in to get an eventual title shot after being a highly ranked contender for the past six years. The 33-year-old’s biggest fights are in front of him. And that, of course, includes his ongoing effort to not let his stutter affect his willingness to open up to UFC fans.
“Him exposing his true self is a (barrier), and we’ve been encouraging him along that route,” Lopez said. “But we’ve also gone the other way, too, like, ‘Hey man, let them hear about you. Let them hear the (expletive) stutter. Show these kids that have the same hurdle as you do that anything is possible.’
“This thing that has held him up his whole life, I really believe it could be a superpower for him.”
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