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Manager Malki Kawa talks in detail about how the UFC and Jorge Masvidal came to a deal for UFC 251.
“BMF” champion Jorge Masvidal was all over the MMA news headlines last weekend when he agreed to take a six-day notice title fight against Kamaru Usman at UFC 251. In a recent conversation with MMA Fighting, manager Malki Kawa detailed the entire process and how the deal came to be.
“As of Friday night, we definitely didn’t have a deal done,” Kawa said. “As of Saturday morning, we didn’t have a deal done so it looked like it wasn’t going to happen. About noon time, I want to say 12:30 or so, Jorge shows up at my house, we’re having a 4th of July barbecue.
“We’re hanging out and talking and as soon as he walked in the house he said ‘they’re not moving on the fight?’ and I said no, not at all. He was like ‘what the f—k’s wrong with these guys?’ something to that effect.”
Kawa then decided to take things a step further so he got in touch with the UFC’s Chief Business Officer Hunter Campbell. Not too long into the conversation, Malki, his brother Abe, Jorge, and Hunter began sorting out the details that would be favorable for everyone involved.
“Before you know it, it started looking a certain way so then there’s the [COVID-19] testing, so I got them tested,” Kawa explained. “Other things started popping up as far as the logistics, charters, all this stuff but as we started to talk it through, we started to really believe we could get this done. Then we got it done and everything else is obviously history.”
Kawa gave credit to both the UFC and his client for handling things professionally, despite being at odds just a little over a month ago.
“I’ll say this, I was never worried about getting a deal done,” Kawa said. “I really believe in God’s plan and everything really has its time. If what he was asking for and what he wanted wasn’t in the plans at that time for them and when you take a step back to look at this thing, let’s be honest it’s not normal times. They’re chartering planes to go to Abu Dhabi. They’ve got to build this island out. Think about what they’re doing.
“If you really analyze the amount of expenditures they had for this ‘Fight Island,’ the fact that COVID was going on, the fact that there’s no gate, you could understand why they’re a little hesitant to start writing checks,” he continued. “You can’t blame them for doing things a certain way.
“I was never mad at them. That’s one thing I liked hearing from Jorge and the UFC, none of this was personal. Everybody was cool with everybody. It was just business.”
Ultimately, Kawa gave props to Masvidal for agreeing to step into the biggest fight of his career within such a short timeframe.
“Masvidal deserves all the respect for stepping up,” he said. “Six days’ notice for a title fight, biggest fight of your career to date. I think that this is a really big deal and if you see the reaction to it, I think it’s a huge deal. Masvidal deserves all the props in the world because a lot of guys in his position won’t take a fight on short notice when they have to cut all that weight and do what they have to do to get there.
“That’s why he holds the baddest motherf—r belt. I don’t care about his losses, all that other talk. He holds that ‘BMF’ belt because only bad motherf—rs do what Masvidal does.”
Usman vs. Masvidal happens on Satuday, July 11 at Yas Island in Abu Dhabi.