Curtis Blaydes earned his sixth win in his past seven fights on Saturday, dominating fellow heavyweight contender Shamil Abdurakhimov at UFC 242.
Blaydes flawlessly executed his plan, relying on his expert wrestling to take the fight to the mat numerous times throughout the first round. “I knew I was the better wrestler. I knew I was better conditioned. I could have done that for five rounds,” Blaydes said the win.
Blaydes was actually close to ending things in the first round after taking Abdurakhimov was the canvas, but his barrage of ground strikes was ended only by the bell.
Blaydes came out in the second with the same approach and this time, there was no bell to save Abdurakhimov. After a number of ananswered punches, including an elbow that bloodied the Russian's nose, referee Marc Goddard stopped the fight at the 2:22 mark in the second round.
It was the second win in a row for Curtis Blaydes and his sixth in the past seven. His only loss came to No. 2-ranked heavyweight champion Francis Ngannou back in November 2018.