Masvidal saved the UFC’s big Fight Island debut during the COVID-19 pandemic after it’s original main event fell out. It made him a lot of money, but may have cost him his dreams of a title.
While boxers like Ryan Garcia are celebrating $50 million paydays for fights, UFC fighters are just grateful when they can pull a $5 million payday out of the promotion.
Jorge Masvidal may have never won a proper UFC title, but he did become a bona fide star that could move the needle pay-per-view wise. In the UFC, you rarely get a cut of the PPV unless you hold a belt. Jorge Masvidal found a way, though. He fought Nate Diaz for the first ever BMF belt title fight in 2019. Then when COVID hit and the UFC needed to make a big bang for their Fight Island debut, he agreed to fight Kamaru Usman on six days notice.
“We ended up selling right under 1.3 million pay-per-views,” he told VladTV in a recent interview. “If I hadn’t struck that deal with the UFC, I wouldn’t have gotten nowhere near $5 million. I would have sold the same amount and gotten no nowhere near $5 million. And I would have just felt like I got taken advantage of.”
Prior to that, “Gamebred” was at an impasse with the UFC over pay.
“Give me more money, not on the guarantee, but on the pay-per-views I bring in,” Masvidal said of the situation. “If I sell $100 million in pay-per-views, I want a much bigger share than what you guys are offering me. And [negotiations] comes to a halt. We just don’t get to do that, you know?”
“So they go another route, and six days before the fight, the other route catches Corona. And now the UFC calls me, and they need somebody that can fill in on six days notice, fly across the world, and cut 20 pounds of water in these six days to fight for a world title. There’s only one motherf—er in the whole world that could get that call, for the Bat Signal, and that’s this dude here.”
Before departing for Fight Island on a private jet, Jorge Masvidal took one last look and saluted #UFC251
(via @GamebredFighter) pic.twitter.com/Dq6X6d95iz
— ESPN MMA (@espnmma) July 6, 2020
“But I had to get paid, and I had to get paid very f—ing handsomely for doing this,” he added. “So they gave in to all my demands that I had. And as far as that goes, I made out like a bandit because I got what I wanted.”
Masvidal had previously fought for a title in Strikeforce, earning a paltry $16,000 for his efforts. He had vowed to never get taken advantage of again like that, but still feels like the short notice fight cost him his chance to win against Kamaru Usman.
“So part of me, the business side of me, was very, very satisfied and happy, you know?” he concluded. “For my kids, for myself, my family. But the guy that always wanted that world title belt wasn’t, you know?”