Jorge Masvidal reveals the biggest regret of his UFC career: ‘I fought for everything I could’
While reflecting on his UFC career, Jorge Masvidal has one major regret.
After a mostly middling career in combat sports, ‘Gamebred’ seemingly turned a corner in 2019, starting with a knockout of Darren Till at UFC on ESPN+ 5. He followed that up with perhaps the most-watched highlight in MMA history.
Returning to the Octagon four months later, Masvidal dispatched former Bellator and ONE world champion Ben Askren in five seconds with the flying knee heard around the world.
Adding a win over Nate Diaz to claim the inaugural BMF belt that same year, Jorge Masvidal went from midcarder to superstar overnight.
Unfortunately, Masvidal’s star fizzled out almost as fast as it grew, kickstarting with a short-notice welterweight title fight at UFC 251 against then-champion Kamaru Usman.
“It’s a regret, but also not a regret,” Masvidal said during an appearance on The TimboSugarShow with Sean O’Malley and Tim Welch. “When I got the call to fight [Kamaru] Usman on six days’ notice, me and the UFC had been going back because I wanted more pay-per-view money. I wanted a bigger distribution on the pay-per-views than I was bringing in. They weren’t budging on that. If I bring in money, I want to get paid money. If I sell 100 thousand pay-per-views, then don’t give me sh*t, but I wanted to get f*cking paid.
“That was going on for a while and then we came to a halt and I was like, ‘F*ck, whatever bro. I guess it’s not meant to be.’ In Strikeforce, I fought for the lightweight world title, and the UFC had already purchased the company, but I got a sh*t deal. The fight kept getting pushed back and I made $16,000 to challenge for the world title, against the guy who was top-rated in the world. Then I had all of the chips on my side, because who was going to cut all this weight in six days, make weight, and at the time I was number one.
“So they didn’t have any choice. I fought for everything I could, I made more money than I ever had in my career, but I didn’t get the decision I wanted in that fight. It would’ve been completely different [if it was seven weeks’ notice]” (h/t BJPenn.com)
Jorge Masvidal turns to boxing to snap four-fight losing skid
After five rounds, Jorge Masvidal lost on all three judges’ scorecards, handing Usman a unanimous decision victory. The two would run it back the following year with the ‘Nigerian Nightmare’ scoring a vicious second-round KO against ‘Gamebred’ at UFC 261, bringing their rivalry to an end emphatically.
Masvidal would go on to lose his next two fights against Colby Covington and Gilbert Burns before walking away from the promotion on a four-fight losing skid.
Despite not seeing his hand raised in nearly five years, Masvidal continues to be a notable name, parlaying his ‘Gamebred’ brand into a successful fight promotion that features both bare-knuckle MMA and professional boxing bouts. On July 6, Masvidal will lace up the eight-ounce gloves for a rematch with Nate Diaz inside the squared circle.
Emanating from the Honda Center in Anaheim, California, the fight will be a co-promotion between Masvidal’s Gamebred Boxing and Diaz’s Real Fight Inc. You can purchase the event for $79.99 through the Fanmio app.
