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29-year old Curtis Blaydes is in a bit of an unfortunate position in the UFC Heavyweight division. He's now on a four-fight win streak, but his only two losses in the UFC have come against the man ahead of him in line for a title shot - Francis Ngannou. However, he has a new interesting possible opponent in Derrick Lewis.
While the four wins would normally warrant a title shot, that doesn't seem to be the case in the Heavyweight division. Francis Ngannou is waiting for the winner of Stipe Miocic vs Daniel Cormier at UFC 252 this weekend - which means that Ngannou will most likely be fighting Miocic regardless since Daniel Cormier stated his intention to retire after the conclusion of the trilogy.
Derrick Lewis is coming off an emphatic win over Aleksei Oleinik where he won by TKO in the second round. He named three opponents that make sense for him next following his third win in a row - Curtis Blaydes, Francis Ngannou, and Aleister Overeem.
Curtis Blaydes took to Twitter, formally accepting his challenge:
Stay busy with Derrick Lewis or wait it out - which is better for Curtis Blaydes?
If Curtis Blaydes wants a shot at the title, he might have to wait well over a year. Stipe Miocic chose the route of sitting it out for over a year so he could get a rematch against Daniel Cormier and it worked.
Francis Ngannou, who lost to Derrick Lewis previously, is virtually guaranteed a title shot after his last four wins took a combined time of just 2 minutes and 42 seconds - all of which were first-round knockouts and three of which came in under a minute.
Curtis Blaydes vs Derrick Lewis as a de-facto title eliminator makes a lot of sense. However, there's no denying that the Cormier-Miocic trilogy clogged up the Heavyweight division for three full years.
