Curtis Blaydes Looking to Fight Fighters Above After UFC 225 Win

Curtis Blaydes spoke with MMAjunkie after his win over Alistair Overeem at UFC 225. Highlights are below:

On a possible fight with Francis Ngannou: “I want the belt. If they’re not going to give me the belt, (I want) Ngannou. I’m not going after guys (ranked) below me – only guys above me. No disrespect to Volkov. He’s amazing. If he was ranked No. 1, we’d go at it.”

On the Stipe Miocic vs. Daniel Cormier fight at UFC 226: “I could see it going either way, but if I was going to bet, I would go with Stipe because I think his length, his boxing – or, his kickboxing – plus, he’s a recent decent wrestler himself, and seeing how ‘DC’s’ older, I don’t know if that’s going to come into play since it’s going to be a five-round fight. I know we’ve seen ‘DC’ go five rounds before several times, but he’s also been dropped by Jon Jones, so we don’t know how good that jaw of his is still. So I’ll go with Stipe. And they’re both legends. Me having a fight with either one of them is going to be a battle. It doesn’t matter which one.”