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Curtis Blaydes added some serious boxing power to his advance grappling game. Blaydes maintained his place among the heavyweight elite with a big knockdown and violent ground-and-pound finish of Chris Daukaus in the main event of UFC Fight Night at the Nationwide Arena in Columbus, Ohio.

Many expected a modern-day revisiting of grappler vs. striker when Blaydes and Daukaus locked horns. Blaydes opted to show off the depth of his striking game instead. Blaydes turned on the nitrous at the start of Round 2, crumbling Daukaus with a hook and swarming him for the TKO finish. Referee Herb Dean waved off the bout just 17-seconds into the round.

Blaydes, during his post-fight interview, called out recent UFC heavyweight title challenger Ciryl Gane to an interim title bout. Interviewer Daniel Cormier pointed out that former champion Stipe Miocic was in attendance.

"I want to be like you, but that means I may need to beat you," Blaydes told Miocic. I respect you..."

Blaydes (16-3, 1 NC) remains one of the most difficult fights in the land of the giants, losing only to knockout artists Francis Ngannou and Derrick Lewis. "Razor" Blaydes added Daukaus' name to a collection of wins that includes Alistair Overeem, Mark Hunt, Junior dos Santos, Alexander Volkov and Jairzinho Rozenstruik.

Daukaus (12-5) has lost back-to-back fights for the first time in his professional MMA career after facing division stalwarts Blaydes and Lewis. He entered the promotion with four consecutive finishes over Shamil Abdurakhimov, Aleksei Oleinik, Rodrigo Nascimento and Parker Porter.