‘He’s A B—ch. The B—ch Can Wrestle, Though’

Photo by David Becker/Getty Images

After a hard night in the Octagon, Jorge Masvidal discusses what went wrong in his much anticipated grudge match against former teammate Colby Covington. Jorge Masvidal didn’t have any…


UFC 272: Covington v Masvidal
Photo by David Becker/Getty Images

After a hard night in the Octagon, Jorge Masvidal discusses what went wrong in his much anticipated grudge match against former teammate Colby Covington.

Jorge Masvidal didn’t have anything nice to say about Colby Covington coming into their huge grudge match at UFC 272. And the animosity levels certainly didn’t drop after Covington nearly blanked Masvidal on the scorecards, with Jorge getting just one round on one judge’s card en route to a 50-45, 50-44, 49-46 defeat (watch the highlights here). But at the post fight press conference, “Gamebred” was forced to give “Chaos” his due. Sort of.

“He’s a b—ch,” Masvidal said. “That’s it. The b—ch can wrestle, though.”

“I wrestled like s—t,” he said when asked about his performance. “I lost a lot of exchanges that if I’d won ‘em … on a technical level things could have gone a little different, you know? If I would have made him spend more energy in different takedowns. That first takedown I gave up, he took my back and he rode me pretty good. And that got me a little flat going into the next and next round.”

“I felt like I won a lot of the exchanges. I felt like on the feet I definitely did more damage, but it’s a fight and … I mean, s—t man. If I could have done it all over again, I would have gone to college and wrestled my ass off and got my grades up and be able to stuff all these guys up and just keep it on the feet. But I was just flat on the wrestling, brother.”

The loss to Covington after all the trash talk and drama definitely bothered Masvidal, but he seemed more wrapped up in his technical errors than the much hyped beef between the two.

“It just sucks because this idiot talked about my kids,” Jorge said. “He’s still somebody that if I see him out in the streets, I’m going to give him everything I’ve got to break his f—king jaw, you know?. It doesn’t matter if I lost wrestling scrambles tonight, I still think he’s a f—kin p—sy, you know?”

“To lose to a b—ch like that, all he does is talk about people’s kids, religions, nations, obviously no one wants to lose to a coward like that. So I felt like … like I lost the wrestling exchanges. The fight fight, you know? Whatever. I know I did damage, I think I dropped him twice. So it just sucks man. F—king flat on the wrestling and he was able to jump on me and take me down.”

“There was one or two times that I felt him get real tired on the takedowns and all of a sudden he got the takedown because I was stuffing the second and third attempt, then on the fourth one he got me down. He’s got good control once he’s on top.”

There was also that moment in the fourth round when Masvidal rocked Covington, buckling his knees for a moment.

“I didn’t pounce on him after I dropped him,” he said. “I wasn’t surprised that he bounced up. I was just surprised that I didn’t go and take his head off. I thought he was going to shoot immediately on me, so I just … was thinking of wrong s—t instead of just going to take his head off. I was tired. He was tired and hurt. That was my chance right there. That was that window of like five or six seconds to give it all I’ve got and make a sprint and make a big change. Maybe I could have made that round 10-8, 10-7, who knows, you know? But I didn’t take that opening.”

Masvidal was also unimpressed with the refereeing in the fight after Covington got away with an eye poke in the first round

“The eyepoke was pretty bad, man,” Masvidal said. “It’s the only thing that’s hurting right now is the f—king eyepoke. My eye’s still throbbing right now. I’ve had a couple mishaps with Herb Dean, I just don’t get it why he didn’t fix the action. [Colby] threw a punch and missed and then immediately just jabbed me in the eyeball. I’m not gonna take nothing away from him winning the fight because that was just one sequence, but it would have been cool if they’d stopped it there and I would have gotten my breathing and restart because he poked the s—t out of my eye.”

“Me and Herb Dean don’t have a clean record as it is, we’ve had a couple of mishaps in the past and … s—t, he’s not my cup of tea when it comes to refereeing,” he continued. “And then there was the low blow. Colby’s always been kind of a little dirty fighter, but today just showed more of it. I’m not gonna rely on that, still I lost the wrestling scrambles and he won.”

After this rough run against world class wrestlers, it wouldn’t be surprising to see Masvidal campaign for some bouts against fellow strikers. But he sounded more determined than ever to crack the code and defeat Covington in a rematch sometime down the road.

“Definitely, if I get on a winning track and prove myself again and get that fight, it’s a fight I’d love to take,” he said regarding a second fight. “I feel like I keep improving those positions where I f—ked up tonight, just make it a little more taxing on him so when we get to the feet I’m fresher, he’s a little more worn out and I can get some big shots in his face and finish him next time.”

“I’m gonna go and earn it though by knocking people out. Eventually I’ll get back in front of him, I’ll get in front of Usman. I’m far removed from them, I’m probably two or three fights away from that. But I love the work, I love to fight. So as long as I can still hold my own in the gym I’ll be back in there. It’d be nice to get both. If I could get both, it’d be very nice.”

“I think the only thing that makes sense is for me to get in the gym, me to get into track and field and just get after it,” he concluded. “Get in great shape, see where my headspace is at and then three or four months from now, make that decision who’s next. For right now, I want to clear the cobwebs up. It’s not that I’m hurt or nothing but to lose to a punk like that, it sucks. And if I fight another wrestler I need to make sure I can deal with this thing.”

“It’s always been tough fights for me with the wrestlers, thinking ‘Is he going to shoot on me’ so I don’t open up as much on the feet as I should, and then I get in big scrambles and I get out-scrambled. So I just need to fix the wrestling, man.”