Curtis Blaydes Breaks Cain Velasquez’s Record for Most UFC Heavyweight Takedowns

UFC on ESPN 11 featured a Heavyweight clash serve as its main event. However, it was nowhere near the insane co-main event Featherweight clash. Whilst this is not an attack on the fight, its pedestrian feel was largely due to the utter dominance Curtis Blaydes maintained over Alexander Volkov.

As a result of his win, the 29-year-old tied Francis Ngannou and Augusto Sakai for most the longest active win streak in the division with 4. Also, he broke a seven-year-old takedown record. 

Curtis Blaydes steamrolls Alexander Volkov to set a takedown record

In the buildup to the fight, ‘Razor’ promised to end it quickly. This did not happen as they slugged it out for the full 25 minutes. This is all ‘Drago’ for persevering on, despite being treated akin to a rag doll by the wrestler. 

En route to the scorecards, the 3rd ranked heavyweight had an insane amount of ground control time. Furthermore, he even set a new Heavyweight record for most takedowns in a single fight with 14. 

The record was earlier held by former UFC Heavyweight Champion Cain Velasquez. He achieved 11 takedowns at UFC 155 against Junior dos Santos.

In addition to the Heavyweight takedown record, ‘Razor’ propelled himself to 3rd in the all-time UFC fights takedown list and is level with Demetrious Johnson. The duo is behind Sean Sherk, who landed 16 takedowns against Hermes Franca at UFC 73, and record holder Khabib Nurmagomedov. ‘The Eagle’ landed an astonishing 21 takedowns in a 3 round contest against Abel Trujillo at UFC 160. 

Also, to highlight ‘Razor’s dominance even further, he moved to second for most UFC Heavyweight wins since 2016. He is one behind Derrick Lewis and will no doubt be looking to extend and break more records soon. 

Following the fight, an exhausted ‘Razor’ told Jon Anik that he will be back following the Daniel Cormier- Stipe Miocic trilogy fight which is scheduled for August. 

What did you make of Curtis Blaydes’ utter dominance as he cemented himself as a future contender for the belt?

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