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“I’m moving on from that fight. This dude didn’t want the fight. I’m not here to bully.”
MMA fans might want to see Jorge Masvidal take on Conor McGregor following ‘The Notorious’s’ first-round TKO of Donald Cerrone at UFC 246, but ‘Gamebred’ has other plans.
Speaking to ESPN’s Ariel Helwani in a recent interview, Masvidal said he is moving on from the McGregor bout to focus on Kamaru Usman, the reigning UFC welterweight champion.
“He [McGregor] don’t want the fight so I don’t give a f*ck no more,” Masvidal said, per MMA Fighting. “I’m moving on from that fight. This dude didn’t want the fight. I’m not here to bully. I guess it’s Usman’s head. He sealed Usman’s fate now.”
If the UFC was to put an interim title on the line between himself and McGregor, however, Masvidal would be all for the match-up.
“That’d be good too, if Conor wanted to do that,” Masvidal said. “One of these two guys is gonna have to scrap with me. I’m leaning right now towards Usman, the way he’s been talking, the sh*t he’s been saying, but if Conor wants it, we’ll get it done. It won’t be hard to get it done but I’m not going to sit here and entertain bullsh*t and stuff, you know? I just want to scrap.”
Masvidal understands McGregor would be the lucrative option but not necessarily the most satisfying. The ‘BMF’ champ says ‘dismantling Usman’s face’ would be much more satisfying than earning a big paycheck against McGregor.
“I make a considerably larger paycheck with Conor but if it’s on the personal side, if it’s all potatoes and tomatoes being the same, I would take a lot more pleasure in dismantling Usman’s face than I would Conor’s,” Masvidal said. “I would have a sincere joy inside of me like a kid on Christmas opening numerous gifts if Usman was the dude that I got to baptize.
“There is something about his face. I don’t like it, it doesn’t sit well with me. I don’t like his attitude either. These little comments of ‘who?’ I have been doing this 16 f*cking years. I’m the fighter of the year, and I’m at your f*cking weight class and you’re going to be as corny and a petty-ass troll and say ‘who?’
“The dude ain’t go no personality. He has 17 different f*cking personalities but not one of them is made for TV. So I want to f*ck his ass up.”
Masvidal last fought at UFC 244, where he battered Nate Diaz to win the BMF title. The MMA veteran is on a three-fight win streak and currently ranked #3 in the UFC welterweight rankings.