Jorge Masvidal got a chance to watch his fight with Al Iaquinta on video this week. Nothing he saw from the film made him change his mind. More than ever, Masvidal thought he should have won the decision.
“I thought I was in complete control,” Masvidal told MMAFighting.com. “Looking at the video, I wouldn’t have changed nothing if I was to fight him tomorrow, today, whatever.”
Iaquinta came up with the split decision victory at UFC Fight Night: Mendes vs. Lamas on April 4, winning the second and third rounds on two judges’ scorecards. The other judge had Masvidal winning the bout, 30-27.
When Masvidal heard Iaquinta announced as the winner, he threw his hands up in the air and stormed from the Octagon. The fans in Fairfax, Va., booed the decision, causing Iaquinta to lash out at them in an interview with Jon Anik. The feeling of being robbed did not leave Masvidal a few days afterward.
“It was like they went into a 7-11, they took a couple 12 packs and Slurpees and just ran out the door,” Masvidal said.
The American Top Team product is trying to put the loss behind him, even if he feels like it wasn’t a loss at all. He’s actively campaigned on social media to get a fight with Benson Henderson at UFC 186 on April 25 in Montreal at welterweight. Both Henderson and Masvidal are ranked lightweights, but Henderson moved up to 170 for his last fight.
“I’d take the fight tomorrow,” Masvidal said. “I just want to compete. The main reason I’m in this sport is not to run mouths and make posts on Twitter and stuff. It’s to compete. If I can compete five, six times a year that would be perfect. I just want to get out there, compete and get that taste out of my mouth.”
Masvidal (28-9) was frustrated to begin with heading into the Iaquinta fight. He wanted a higher ranked opponent and was originally supposed to face Henderson on the card before Henderson filled in on short notice against Brandon Thatch in February.
After the loss, Masvidal, who had won three in a row and six of seven coming in, does not expect to get another ranked opponent. And he would prefer not to draw a rematch with Iaquinta.
“I could care less for it,” he said. “If it happens, it does. I beat him the first time. If they tell me, this is what we want you to do, we want you to do a rematch for whatever reason, I’ll kick his ass again. I’m cleared to fight. He ain’t.”
Masvidal, 30, did have some minor regrets about the fight. There were some opportunities to take Iaquinta down, but he didn’t take them mostly because he felt like he was doing fine standing.
“I had a couple times where I was just like I should have took him down, for sure,” Masvidal said. “Because I felt like the takedown, he couldn’t have stopped it. I was just trying to catch him with another big punch. I get him to miss big and then just catch him with a big punch. It didn’t happen in the third round.”
It did in the first and second, in Masvidal’s opinion. And even in the third, Masvidal felt like he did more than enough to win.
“When you’re in the moment, emotions get to you,” he said. “But looking at it with a clear head, I just outpointed him in every round. I outlanded him and threw more punches than what he did in every round. Not just in the first round, not just in the second. In every round. I’m baffled. But whatever. I can’t stay stuck in the past.”
In the future, though, Masvidal hopes judges can sit down with fighters and explain to them exactly what wins fights and what does not. Because he’s confused about it now.
“I thought me hitting you and you not hitting me and me making you miss and even throwing more than you means that I won a fight,” he said.
Maybe not on a Saturday afternoon in Virginia.