Another unranked Russian is set to take on a Top 5 fighter in the Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) next year.
The MMA community was taken by surprise when it was announced last week that former Heavyweight interim title challenger Curtis Blaydes would be facing unranked UFC newcomer Rizvan Kuniev at UFC Seattle in February 2025.
This isn’t entirely unprecedented, however. In 2023, one-fight UFC veteran Abus Magomedov headlined a UFC Fight Night against No. 7 ranked Sean Strickland, and just last year, unranked Shamil Gaziev faced No. 8 seeded Jairzinho Rozenstruik.
Both of those Russians suffered defeats against their more seasoned opponents.
The situation appears to repeat itself, but it raises eyebrows even more considering that Blaydes is coming off a title fight against Tom Aspinall, while Kuniev will be making his UFC debut against him.
Despite the unusual matchup, Blaydes remains unfazed. “UFC reached out to me with a name, and I was like, ‘I like the date,’ so I said yeah,” Blaydes shared with James Lynch. “People don’t understand that the money is the same regardless of the opponent, so I’ll take a paycheck…All I know is he’s Russian. I’ve had experience fighting Russians; they’re not easy to put away, so I’m expecting a typical Heavyweight fight. He’ll be swinging to get me out of there as early as he can, and I’ll be doing my job by not letting him do that.”
Although ranked No. 5 in the Heavyweight division, Blaydes could have opted to wait for a matchup against a fighter within the rankings, but that would have delayed his return until later in Q1 or Q2.
“They kind of gave me the option, and I could have just waited, but it would have been a long wait, like all the way until April or May,” Blaydes explained. “So I just figured they got me an opponent, I liked the date, and it’s hard to turn down a paycheck.”
Blaydes will be looking to bounce back from his knockout loss to Aspinall, while Kuniev aims to secure his first UFC victory since defeating his opponent in a decisive fashion on the Contender Series in August.
To check out UFC’s upcoming schedule of events, click here.
Source link
