Curtis Blaydes tried to battle through some injuries to make UFC Fight Night 231, but ultimately he decided to withdraw.
Blaydes (17-4 MMA, 12-4 UFC) was forced out of his Nov. 4 headliner vs. Jailton Almeida (19-2 MMA, 5-0 UFC) at Ibirapuera Gymnasium in Sao Paulo. Former title challenger Derrick Lewis (27-11 MMA, 18-9 UFC) will step in as a replacement.
Blaydes released a statement on his Facebook page to explain that he couldn’t overcome the injuries he was dealing with during camp.
“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 was looking to rebound from a first-round TKO loss to Sergei Pavlovich in April. Prior to that, he scored three straight wins over Jairzinho Rozenstruik, Chris Daukaus, and Tom Aspinall.
For more on the card, visit MMA Junkie’s event hub for UFC Fight Night 231.
Curtis Blaydes opens up on UFC Sao Paulo withdrawal: ‘I promise this decision wasn’t made in haste’
