‘DC’ Coaches Masvidal On Path To Welterweight Gold

Jorge Masvidal has a bit of a problem.

“Gamebred” is one of the sport’s biggest stars, and UFC has proven in the past that its willing to leapfrog contenders as necessary to create big business. Given Masvidal’s bad blood with current Welterweight king Leon Edwards, that fight could move a whole lot of pay-per-view (PPV) buys. “Rocky” is open to the match up, but a simple problem remains: Masvidal hasn’t won a fight since November 2019.

At the moment, there remains a chance Masvidal could join the title mix before the planned Edwards vs. Kamaru Usman rubber match goes down. However, UFC color commentator and Hall of Famer Daniel Cormier — who recently traded some nasty words with Masvidal on this very topic — has some advice for making that happen.

“You got to fight Gilbert Burns right now,” Cormier said on his YouTube channel (via MMA Junkie). “You got to accept that fight. I don’t know if you’ve been offered the fight. I don’t know if the legal issues are keeping you from taking the fight, but Gilbert Burns is out there saying the fight’s been offered. He’s out there saying, publicly, that it’s just on you now.

“I know Jorge Masvidal is a street dude from Miami, and does not run from a fight, but if you want that title fight, you got to fight ‘Durinho’ right now. And you gotta win.”

There’s one additional caveat from Cormier. Masvidal doesn’t just have to defeat “Durinho,” he has to do it quickly, before Usman is fully recovered and the trilogy bout is booked.

“You also gotta do one more thing,” Cormier continued. “You got to fight him before the Usman/Edwards rematch is announced, the trilogy. You got to be going in the right direction by the time that fight gets announced, so that if given the opportunity, you can capitalize on the chance, just like you did in the first title fight.”

Even if Masvidal does manage to quickly take out Burns, Khamzat Chimaev may have something to say about “Gamebred” jumping the line.