Jorge Masvidal is getting into the bare knuckle business.
The UFC contender is set to rematch reigning welterweight champion Kamaru Usman at UFC 261 on April 24th, and it sounds like Usman wasn’t the only thing on his mind over the past several weeks. In a video posted on Instagram, “Gamebred” announced the start of Gamebred Fighting Champiuonship, a bare knuckle mixed martial arts promotion.
“Huge news for true fight fans as me and the one and only Anuel AA have teamed up to bring you the most vicious fights we could think of Bare Knuckle MMA,” he wrote. “That’s right, no gloves same rules and the first fight will be in Miami on June 25.”
While no location or fighters have been announced, the event will take place under the Unified Rules of MMA … just without gloves. Masvidal will be partnering with Puerto Rican rapper Anuel AA for this project, and all fighters will be outfitted in AA’s Real Hasta La Muerte (Real Until Death) clothing label.
Masvidal’s manager Ibrahim Kawa explained to MMA Junkie how the collaboration came together.
“Anuel has a saying: ‘Real hasta la muerte,’ which basically means, ‘Real until I die,’” Kawa said. “That resonates with Jorge and the brand that Jorge is trying to make. We’re looking forward to a lot of blood, gore and finding the best fighters out there who are going to make it.”
Masvidal and company must have realized the big bucks are in promoting. With Triller making big bucks off novelty fights, how far stretched is it to imagine Masvidal parlaying his new level of stardom to bring similar attention to his rare brand of bare knuckle MMA? Masvidal is unique in that he came up fighting in backyard bare knuckle brawls … one of his first big breaks was fighting in one of Kimbo Slice’s viral videos.
We look forward to seeing what kind of fight promotion Masvidal offers up … and how the UFC will react to their star’s new promotional endeavor.