Curtis Blaydes expects to wrestle Derrick Lewis “until he breaks”

Curtis Blaydes has a specific gameplan for his upcoming main event fight against Derrick Lewis.

On February 20, Blaydes and Lewis will finally fight after their bout on November 20 was postponed due to Blaydes testing positive for COVID-19. Now that “Razor” is healthy he says he is eager to fight Lewis as he knows there is a clear path to victory.

“I envision him either coming out aggressively and me taking him down immediately,” Curtis Blaydes said to James Lynch of Line Movement. “Or, him kind of being more of a counter striker and him slowly going back towards the cage with his back heels. Then, me just walking him down and getting to his hips and rinse and repeat until he breaks.”

Curtis Blaydes is riding a four-fight winning streak. Last time out, he went all five rounds against Alexander Volkov and won the fight by decision. Before that, he picked up TKO wins over dos Santos and Shamil Abdurakhimov. Razor has only lost twice in his career, both times coming at the hands of Francis Ngannou.

Derrick Lewis, meanwhile, is currently on a three-fight winning streak. Last time out, he scored a second-round KO over Alexey Oleynik to become the UFC’s record holder for most knockouts at heavyweight. Before the win over the Russian, “The Black Beast” beat Ilir Latifi and Blagoy Ivanov by decision. If he can beat Blaydes, it would be one of the biggest wins of his career.

With Stipe Miocic vs. Francis Ngannou 2 booked and Jon Jones likely to face the winner, it is uncertain where the winner of Curtis Blaydes vs. Derrick Lewis would go. Perhaps, the face the winner of Jairzinho Rozenstruik vs. Ciryl Gane or wait for a title shot. Yet, with Blaydes already being 0-2 against Ngannou, if Ngannou wins, whether or not he would get a third fight is uncertain.

Do you think Curtis Blaydes will beat Derrick Lewis on February 20?