Curtis Blaydes has shared the Octagon with some of the biggest punchers in UFC history – but one stands out above the rest.
You would be hard-pressed to find a heavyweight with a better list of names on his résumé than Blaydes.
The American wrestler has beaten the likes of Mark Hunt, Alistair Overeem, Junior Dos Santos, Alexander Volkov and Jairzinho Rozenstruik during an impressive nine-year run in MMA‘s premier promotion.
Meanwhile, Francis Ngannou, Tom Aspinall and Sergei Pavlovich all proved to have too much firepower for the 34-year-old.
Each of the aforementioned names carries plenty of power, especially Ngannou and Hunt, who are widely considered to be two of the heaviest hitters to ever grace MMA.
While Blaydes acknowledges that both men carry an almighty dig, he is under no illusion that former foe Derrick ‘The Black Beast’ Lewis hits harder.
“People always ask me who hits harder: Mark Hunt [Francis] Ngannou, or Derrick Lewis,” he told the MMA Hour in 2022.
“I fought them all. I’ve been hit hard by Mark Hunt. He hit me hard, he wobbled me.
“Ngannou, when I went to Beijing, he dropped me but I was still there.
“But Derrick Lewis. All I remember thinking was, ‘Alright, I’m going to shoot’.
“And then… waking up in the ambulance. So he hits the hardest.”
Blaydes was on the verge of a heavyweight title shot when he squared off against Lewis in February 2021.
However, his hopes were smashed by a booming uppercut that sent his head into orbit.
The brutal stoppage took its toll on Blaydes, who admits it was in the ‘back of his mind’ when he took on heavy-handed Surimanese striker Rozenstruik seven months later.
“I’m not going to lie to you, [that KO] was on the outskirts of my mind,” he added.
“When you get knocked out like that… I woke up in the ambulance, so that’s a weird feeling.
“And yeah, it got to me a little bit. But after the first round with Jairzinho [Rozenstruik], it was gone.
“It was initially there, but it was gone after the first round.”
Blaydes went on to beat Rozenstruik, Chris Daukaus and Aspinall (thanks to a freak knee injury) before stoppage losses to Pavlovich and Aspinall in their rematch stunted his trajectory.
He is currently ranked No.5 in the world at heavyweight and will put his position on the line this weekend against Rizvan Kuniev at UFC 313.
