Making his return to the Strikeforce cage this past weekend after a ten fight hiatus, Jorge “Gamebred” Masvidal (21-6) is hoping that the #2 promotion can keep him busy in 2011 by offering him exciting fights, and possibly, a lightweight title shot.
Masvidal earned a unanimous decision in Columbus, Ohio on Saturday night ending Billy Evangelista’s undefeated streak at 12 bouts. Both men met on the Showtime televised portion of the Strikeforce: Feijao vs. Henderson event from the Nationwide Arena. The victory helped him bounce back from a controversial loss to current Strikeforce welterweight contender Paul “Semtex” Daley.
Both men met last September at the Shark Fights 13 event in what was supposed to be a welterweight bout, but ended up as a 171.75 lb catchweight matchup after Daley failed to make weight. Despite scoring several takedowns in the event, the judges saw fit to award the Brit with the unanimous decision, but Masvidal’s performance was still good enough to earn him a Strikeforce contract.
Speaking to FightHypte.com, Masvidal talked about his win over Evangelista, making weight, and his desire to keep busy in 2011.
“Man, if I can’t fight for the title, I want to fight the next toughest guy. Whoever can get me to the title the quickest is what I want to do. I’m glad they gave me a good undefeated guy. I think he had about 7 wins in Strikeforce, so if he wasn’t at the top of the heap, he had to be close. You get that many wins under a promotion, you gotta be close to the top. I want to get the next toughest guy out hopefully…That’s all I want is to stay busy. If the next fight is Joe Schmo, then Joe Schmo it is, but I just want to stay busy and fight the best guys that Strikeforce has to offer.”