Curtis Blaydes Discloses Why He Pulled Out of UFC Sao Paulo Headliner

Ultimate Fighting Championship heavyweight contender Curtis Blaydes (17-4) recently pulled out of his scheduled clash against Jailton Almeida (19-2).

Blaydes was slated to clash against Almeida on Nov. 4 in the UFC Sao Paulo main event, which will mark the Las Vegas-based promotion’s return to the Brazilian city after four long years. However, the booking recently fell through with “Razor” being replaced by knockout artist Derrick Lewis (27-11), although the reason for Blaydes’ withdrawal hasn’t been disclosed.

Blaydes has now released a statement on Facebook addressing his withdrawal while offering an apology to his fans. The perennial heavyweight contender is seemingly dealing with several injuries suffered during camp, all of which will require a considerable amount of rehabilitation.

While it took him a while to realize the same, Blaydes now plans to take time off from training and solely focus on recovery.

“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 Nov. 4,” the 32-year-old wrote. “There’s a difference between being hurt and injured took me almost 3 months to see the difference. I’m going to 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.”