‘Doesnt Respect The Game’- Curtis Blaydes Questions Derrick Lewis’s Work-Ethic Ahead Of Main Event Clash

Curtis Blaydes is one of the best Heavyweight fighters in the world. If he didn’t have a Francis Ngannou shaped hole in his record, he possibly could have challenged for a UFC title already. However, he is still on the quest up the rankings and is facing Derrick Lewis in a top-five showdown this weekend.

Curtis Blaydes criticized Lewis’s gimmick and approach to fighting in an interview prior to the fight.

“I don’t have any reason to call him a bad guy because I haven’t seen anything that would point to that. But I do think his humor is a little low-hanging fruit like ‘I’m tryna be the big easy guy making jokes like my balls are hot’ stuff like that. I wouldn’t do that, that’s not my type of personality. But I’m not hating on him, that’s just one of his schticks. It’s not hurting nobody.”

Blaydes added, “I don’t think he puts in the work and I don’t think he respects the game like I do. I’ve seen it in interviews like he works out once or twice a week… I don’t think he’s putting in the work to be great that a lot of other people are putting in.”

Curtis Blaydes: Underestimating Derrick Lewis?

Derrick Lewis and his love for fighting is a relationship that has been spoken about a lot. The former title contender has never claimed to be fighting out of passion, but because that is what gets the bills paid. The gimmick that Blaydes hates helped Lewis become an international social media sensation, popularity that Lewis still holds on Instagram today.

In terms of a matchup, this is a very traditional striker vs wrestler matchup. However, Lewis does have genuine one-punch knockout power, something Blaydes has struggled with before in his career. One doesn’t need to love the fight game to just knock someone out with a single punch. That is the risk Curtis is running heading into this bout with Lewis.