Photo by Michael Owens/Zuffa LLC/Zuffa LLC
“I promise them just violence, totally, second to second”.
There might be no official UFC welterweight title on the line, but Jorge Masvidal vs. Nate Diaz is arguably the biggest fight in the 170-pound division right now.
Fans are expecting fireworks at UFC 244, where Masvidal and Diaz are set to collide for the ‘BMF’ world title at New York’s Madison Square Garden and, speaking to MMA Junkie in a recent interview, ‘Gamebred’ promised unadulterated violence from the opening bell till the last.
“I promise them just violence, totally, second to second,” Masvidal said. “I’m not going to stop until my heart stops or they have ended the fight. That’s my mentality for all my fights. In this fight, it’s a bit more because my opponent has the same mentality as me. He wants to destroy me completely, and that gives me the extra motivation that sometimes you need, that I haven’t had in years, to motivate me to wake up earlier, to go to bed earlier, to eat a little better when I’m not in Mexico, with more discipline.”
Masvidal went on to state that, as a fighter in MMA’s premiere promotion, headlining one of the biggest UFC pay-per-view events of the year, he feels obliged to give it his all and put on a wildly entertaining show for the fans.
“I have to entertain the people,” Masvidal continued. “If you have to pay the money that you work hard to earn, the people that work construction, the people that cut grass, have to pay money, that people have an option. They want to see violence, and if they want to see violence they’re going to pay for that and not going to choose him.
“They’re not going to pick the people that don’t give it their all in the sport, that don’t try to risk it, that want to win for the smallest thing, most minimal thing possible. I’m not like that. I want to win. I want to give it my all.”
Masvidal is riding a two-fight KO streak over former welterweight title challenger Darren Till and multi-promotion MMA champ Ben Askren, KO’ing the latter in record-breaking time (five seconds) earlier this year at UFC 239.
Diaz returned to the Octagon after a three-year hiatus to take on Anthony Pettis at UFC 241, beating ‘Showtime’ via unanimous decision to re-cement his status as one of the ‘baddest motherf-ckers’ in the promotion.
UFC 244: Masvidal vs. Diaz takes place later this year, Nov. 2 at Madison Square Garden, New York.