Curtis Lionell Blaydes was born in Naperville, Illinois and grew up in Chicago, Illinois with four siblings. Blaydes was an accomplished high school wrestler at De La Salle Institute in Bronzeville, Chicago, Illinois. Here is summary of Blaydes' high school wrestling accomplishments:

• Winner of the Illinois state tournament at Heavyweight
• 44-0 during his senior year.
• Winner of the Glenbrook, CCC, and Conant Tournaments (senior season)
• Most takedowns in De La Salle history (121)
• Three-time varsity letter winner
• Team MVP (senior season)
• 95-18 record

Blaydes continued wrestling in college at Northern Illinois University and later Harper College. At Harper, Blaydes won a national championship as a redshirt sophomore. Blaydes dropped out of college to focus on his MMA career. Blaydes had almost no striking or jiu-jitsu training at this point in his career, as the impoverished South Side Chicago neighborhood in which he grew up was devoid of gyms.

After going 5-0 as an amateur, Blaydes made his professional debut in 2014. Blaydes would KO/TKO five straight opponents to earn a UFC debut against Francis N"Gannou at UFC Fight Night: Rothwell v. dos Santos. N'Gannou would win via second round TKO. Blaydes would quickly bounce back, going 5-0 with one no contest in his next six fights (NC = TKO overturned for marijuana metabolites). This included a TKO victory over submission specialist Aleksei Oleynik (UFC 217), a unanimous decision victory over Mark Hunt (UFC 221), and a TKO victory over renowned mixed martial artist and K-1 kickboxer Alistair Overeem (UFC 225). Blaydes would seek to redeem his loss to N'Gannou at UFC Fight Night: Blaydes v N'Gannou 2, the promotion's second ever event in China and the first in Beijing. History would repeat itself as N'Gannou prevailed via first round TKO.

Blaydes bounced back with four straight wins, including a TKO victory over Junior dos Santos (UFC Fight Night: Blaydes v dos Santos) and a unanimous decision victory over Alexander Volkov (UFC on ESPN: Blaydes v Volkov). Blaydes faced Derrick Lewis at UFC Fight Night: Blaydes vs. Lewis on February 21, 2021. Blaydes looked good in the first round, but in the second round Lewis timed a right uppercut perfectly with a Blaydes takedown attempt. The shot knocked Blaydes out cold before Lewis followed up with "super necessary" ground and pound strikes.

Since then Blaydes has defeated Jairzinho Rozenstruik (UFC 266), Chris Daukaus (UFC on ESPN: Blaydes vs. Daukaus), and Tom Aspinall (UFC Fight Night: Blaydes vs. Aspinall). Blaydes is the #4 ranked UFC Heavyweight as of 8/26/2022

After his first loss to N'Gannou, Blaydes moved to Denver, Colorado to train at Elevation Fight Team. He stays in a house with four other fighters owned by UFC Welterweight Neil Magny and has trained at Elevation ever since.