Jorge Masvidal is open to returning to his old division and facing UFC lightweight champion Khabib Nurmagomedov.
Masvidal enjoyed a breakthrough year in 2019 where he became a superstar following emphatic wins over Darren Till, Ben Askren and Nate Diaz. He has since solely targeted lucrative fights and Nurmagomedov would certainly qualify as one.
Although Masvidal moved up from 155 pounds due to the strenuous weight cut, he has repeatedly mentioned that he would drop down if he was made an offer he couldn’t refuse.
“Gamebred” reiterated the same in a recent YouTube video when asked if he would face Nurmagomedov:
“The moolah’s gonna talk, man,” Masvidal said (via MMA Fighting). “155 is such a battle with my weight. Once I’m at around 172 to 173 pounds, I’m at around five percent body fat already, six percent body fat. So I just don’t have a lot of room to play with and still get to 155. It’s a lot of water, it’s always been a lot of water. That doesn’t leave me the night of the fight in the best shape that I could possibly be, like how I compete at 170 and have that explosion, I can explode a little bit more and for longer. At ‘55 it would be a little different.
“But that’s not to say I couldn’t win one and that I couldn’t make the weight. I would just have to be rewarded so motherf*cking handsomely for me to drop down to ‘55 and compete with anybody.”
Masvidal went on to add that he felt he never got a fair shot at lightweight when it came to his level of opposition. But again, if the money was right, he’d have no problem going back down.
“I would love to do it because I felt I never got my fair due shot at 155,” Masvidal explained. “I beat a lot of top class competitors before I came to the UFC at 155. They never gave me a shot to fight a top-10 guy. It wasn’t until I started fighting at 170 they gave me top-5 and top-10 guys. I never got I felt my fair due shot at ‘55. I beat a lot of good guys when I was down there, in the UFC as well.
“So whatever, if they were to cough up that money I’d be in a hurry to get down there and show what I’m worth.”
For now, Masvidal is expected to challenge Kamaru Usman for his UFC welterweight title.
But would you like to see Masvidal return to 155 at some point in the future?