The UFC heavyweight division is in flux since champion Francis Ngannou will be sidelined for the remainder of 2022 when he tore ligaments in his knee and had to undergo reconstructive surgery after beating Ciryl Gane at UFC 270 in January.
UFC president Dana White has talked about creating an interim title fight in Ngannou's absence to keep things moving. You have surging heavyweights Tai Tuivasa and Tom Aspinall, former two-time heavyweight titlist Stipe Miocic and former light heavyweight champion Jon Jones lurking in the shadows. No. 4-ranked Curtis Blaydes has a chance to put his name into the conversation as he meets No. 9-ranked Chris Daukaus at Saturday's UFC Fight Night headliner from the Nationwide Arena in Columbus, Ohio.
Aspinall is currently the hot name in the division, following last Saturday's first-round submission win over fellow contender Alexander Volkov. An impressive performance from Blaydes puts him in the conversation for a possible interim title fight. Blaydes doesn't want any such talk and compares the scenario to the land of comic books.
"I haven’t thought about it much," Blaydes told DAZN. "It could be him. It could be Tuivasa. I don’t know if you are into DC/Marvel (comic books). But it's like the alternate universes. There's an alternate universe where I fight Stipe. There’s an alternate universe where I fight Jon Jones. There is an alternate universe where I fight God. There's also an alternate universe where I fight Tuivasa. There is an alternate universe where I fight an astronaut. For anybody to say I know, you don't know. Nobody knows (laughs). I don't have spare energy to put on unknowns right now."
After losing via second-round stoppage to Derrick Lewis in a fight he was handly winning, Blaydes (15-3) came back and dominated Jairzinho Rozenstruik to win by unanimous decision. While a win over Daukaus would be nice, and securing an interim title fight means more money in his bank account, in Blaydes' mind, it doesn't mean much unless he's standing across the Octagon from Ngannou.
"Nothing really matters unless it involves the guy with the belt," Blaydes admits. "Everything else is just you just earning a paycheck. You're not solidifying anything because nothing is going to be solidified until you take the belt off the guy who has it already. Unless he's involved, everything doesn't really have the impact.
"Say they (the UFC) do (Ciryl) Gane vs. Aspinall for interim. Ok. Whoever wins, you still got to get that belt from Ngannou. Or they do Tuivasa vs. me if I win this fight. Ok. Nothing really means as much until we know what Ngannou is doing. I wonder how many fighters sit up all day and just think about these alternate realities? Because I don't. I don't have time. I’d rather talk to my daughter, play video games. There’s so many other things I’d rather do than to think about alternate realities."