[autotag]Curtis Blaydes[/autotag] 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.”
https://www.facebook.com/curtis.blaydes.90/posts/pfbid02kh44E4Anf6NKw2DXfsmHbDFffvDsYnDdcLrxtEj42RwP3Gkr7gTPKt2bKek96Tql
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.
[lawrence-auto-related count=5 category=420030788]
For more on the card, visit MMA Junkie’s event hub for UFC Fight Night 231.