Curtis Blaydes feels ‘disrespected’ after his UFC legacy had to take a backseat to Brock Lesnar’s comeback

While popular belief is that Daniel Cormier will defend his heavyweight title against Brock Lesnar in early 2019, fight fans still have to wait and see if Brock can make it through United States Anti Doping Agency’s (USADA) six-month testing window.

In the meantime, the rest of the 265-pound contenders have to sit idly by, including Curtis Blaydes, the No. 3 big man in the land who has to wait for “DC” and Lesnar to do the dance before he gets his shot, assuming “Beast Incarnate” is cleared to fight.

During a recent interview on The Ariel Helwani MMA Show, “Razor” talked about Cormier’s decision to target a big-money fight against Lesnar. And while he doesn’t blame the 265-pound champion for doing so, he says the timing is just bad for him.

“Can I blame him for taking this huge financial opportunity? No. had this happened last year when I wasn’t in title contention, it wouldn’t the that big of a deal to me. But it’s a big deal because Brock coming in slows down my progression, my story,” he added. To hear Curtis tell it, Lesnar coming back after his drug suspension and taking a title shot he doesn’t deserve slows down his progression in the fight game.

And it’s downright disrespectful.

“My legacy has to take a backseat to Brock Lesnar now. I feel it’s a bit disrespectful because he hasn’t earned it. If we were doing this based on merit, he wouldn’t even be in the conversation. It’s me, Stipe, Lewis and Volkov.”

Blaydes is currently riding a four-fight win streak and was last seen knocking out Alistair Overeem at UFC 225. The win was supposed to be good enough to put him at the front of the title hunt before Lesnar turned the division upside down at UFC 226.

Still, if this statement proves to be true, Blaydes could have his title shoot sooner, rather than later.