Jorge Masvidal Willing To Make ‘Horrendous’ Lightweight Cut For Khabib Fight
Jorge Masvidal is willing to make the “horrendous” cut back down to lightweight if he’s compensated properly for it.
Masvidal has been fighting at welterweight since the UFC’s ban of IV use to recover from weight cutting. “Gamebred” has been thriving as of late, currently on a three-fight win streak, finishing each of those opponents. His first being a second-round knockout of Darren Till in London, followed by a record-breaking five-second flying knee knockout win over Ben Askren, and finally, a doctor stoppage win over Nate Diaz this past November.
Now, the American Top Team (ATT) product has set himself up for a big fight next. UFC president Dana White has suggested that he’s looking to book Masvidal versus welterweight champion Kamaru Usman for International Fight Week in July. However, speaking on the HalfCast podcast with Mark Hunt and Tyson Pedro, Masvidal was asked if he’d be willing to drop back down to lightweight for a fight with champion Khabib Nurmagomedov.
Masvidal said he’d be willing to cut down to lightweight for a fight with “The Eagle” if the UFC paid him accordingly. (H/T BJPenn.com)
“Yeah, if the UFC gives us an offer that I couldn’t refuse. To cut the weight at this point would be horrendous for me. I haven’t made that weight in a while and soon as they took the IV’s out from the UFC I couldn’t no longer make 155-pounds,” Masvidal said.
“So, I went up as fast as I could. For me to do that now, I’d have to put myself through so much suffering. At 170 pounds I am already five percent body fat. So, the rest is just straight water, about 18 or 19 pounds is just water.”
Nurmagomedov is currently scheduled to defend his lightweight title against Tony Ferguson in the main event of the UFC 249 pay-per-view (PPV) on April 18 from the Barclays Center in Brooklyn, New York. Should Nurmagomedov and Masvidal win their next respective fights, perhaps they will be matched up inside the Octagon later this year.
What do you think about Masvidal saying he’s willing to make the “horrendous” weight cut down to 155 pounds for a fight with Nurmagomedov?
