Curtis Blaydes Set to Return Against Rizvan Kuniev at UFC Seattle

Curtis Blaydes (18-5) will welcome debutant Rizvan Kuniev (12-2) to the Octagon at UFC Seattle.

Blaydes and Kuniev will meet in a heavyweight matchup at UFC Fight Night 252 on Feb. 22 at the Climate Pledge Arena in Seattle. Multiple outlets have confirmed the pairing after the matchup was first reported by Kuniev’s teammate Jairzinho Rozenstruik in an interview with James Lynch.

Blaydes challenged Tom Aspinall for the interim title in a rematch at UFC 304 this past July. “Honey Badger” knocked out Blaydes in just one minute, also avenging his lone UFC loss, where he blew his knee in the opening seconds back in 2022. Meanwhile, “Razor” has now sandwiched a win over Jailton Almedia between losses against Sergei Pavlovich and Aspinall.

Kuniev earned his UFC contract with a first round technical knockout win over Hugo -Cunha-52825">Hugo -Cunha-227763">Hugo Cunha on the Dana White's Contender Series this past August. While Kuniev entered DWCS on the back of a win over former PFL champ Renan Ferreira, it was later overturned to a no contest when the Dagestani failed a drug test. Kuniev was scheduled to make his promotional debut at UFC 310 earlier this month, but scheduled opponent Martin Buday pulled out due to an injury.