Jorge Masvidal: Kamaru Usman Knows I’ll ‘Baptize’ Him

Jorge Masvidal believes there’s a reason why Kamaru Usman did not want to fight him initially — he feared getting baptized.

Masvidal is set to face Nate Diaz in the UFC 244 headliner on November 2 in Madison Square Garden, New York. The winner of that highly-anticipated bout will win the BMF title.

“Gamebred” was initially offered a fight for the welterweight title currently held by Usman. While he agreed to the bout, he claims Usman declined only to agree later on when he was told he could be stripped of the belt:

“They told me several names – one of them was Usman,” Masvidal said at a recent scrum (translated by MMA Junkie). “I said, ‘OK, let’s go.’ They told Usman this is the fight. He said no. They told him, ‘If you don’t fight, we’re going to take the belt away from you,’ and they started looking for another fight – that person was Nate Diaz.

“Usman called. ‘I want the fight.’ And they told him, ‘Too late. We have Nate Diaz, a guy that does want to fight,’ and that’s it. We have the hardest fight that exists in the whole history of the UFC on Nov. 2.”

Masvidal has knocked out his last two opponents — Darren Till and Ben Askren — in brutal fashion. That is why the American Top Team representative feels Usman does not want the fight. He also had some words for the champion’s fighting style:

“Why do you think he said no, my brother?” Masvidal said. “That guy knows that I’m going to baptize him. That guy has never wanted to fight with me. That guy can only do one thing right: smell balls good. He can’t fight. He has his face there. He doesn’t want to (throw hands), even when he has the chance to throw the hands, and when he has the guy on the floor, he doesn’t do anything.

“It’s not that I don’t have respect for wrestlers. I have a lot of respect to the community of wrestlers, like Khabib (Nurmagomedov). I have a lot of respect for him because he tries to finish fights, he tries to get his hands in there, he tries to choke people. Someone like Usman, I don’t respect his style at all. As a person, I don’t know him, and what I do know, it doesn’t interest me much about him.”

What do you think of Masvidal’s comments?