Curtis Blaydes releases statement after having to pull out of UFC Sao Paulo main event

Curtis Blaydes has opened up on his decision to withdraw from the UFC Sao Paulo main event against Jailton Almeida.

On Monday it was revealed that Blaydes withdrew from his Nov. 4 main event and was replaced by Derrick Lewis. At the time, it wasn’t revealed what happened to Blaydes, but it has since been reported he suffered an ankle injury.

Now, following the news of his withdrawal, Curtis Blaydes took to his Facebook page to release a statement on his withdrawal.

“Injuries from camp weren’t healing at a fast enough pace for me to compete at the level required to be the best version of myself November 4th. There’s a difference between being hurt and injured took me almost 3 months to see the difference. I’m gonna take some time off from training and focus on rehabbing so i can come back fully confident in my athletic abilities. Apologies to everyone who was hyped up for this fight I promise this decision wasn’t made in haste,” Blaydes wrote on Facebook.

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Although having to pull out of the fight was tough, as Curtis Blaydes says at this level he needs to be completely healthy in order to fight. How long the injury will keep him out is uncertain at this time, but ‘Razor’ won’t be returning until 2024.

Curtis Blaydes (17-4 and one No Contest) is coming off a first-round TKO loss to Sergei Pavlovich in the main event of a Fight Night card in April. The loss snapped his three-fight win streak as he had wins over Tom Aspinall, due to injury, Chris Daukaus by KO, and Jairzinho Rozenstruik by decision. Blaydes is currently ranked fifth at heavyweight and also holds notable wins over Alexander Volkov, Alistair Overeem, and Junior dos Santos among others.