Masvidal shared his thoughts on the controversial scorecards issued for his fight against Diaz and suggested the two box again on ‘neutral ground’ in Las Vegas.
Jorge Masvidal went to war with Nate Diaz on Saturday night in Anaheim, California, putting on an entertaining ten round boxing match that delivered more than most fans were expecting from the aged UFC stars (highlights here). In the end, Diaz’s hand was raised via majority decision … and Masvidal has some serious issues with the 98-92 and 97-93 scores delivered.
Masvidal, who’s based in Miami, was fighting down the road from Diaz’s home turf, and he believes that may have tipped the scales towards the Stockton slugger.
“I definitely know the judges were influenced by the crowd,” Jorge said at the ‘Last Man Standing’ post-fight press conference. “Because a lot of those shots were landing in the corner. I was just getting my timing, he’d throw three or four shots, it wouldn’t land, and then I throw a good power shot. I’d see that I hurt him, I’d back him up, or he’d start goofing around. Hurt him to the body numerous times. And I think one or two of the judges only gave me 2 rounds. There’s just no way, you know?”
“I definitely was looking at the fight right now in the locker room. The more meaningful shots, a lot more of the meaningful shots, were landed by me. So I just feel that … it didn’t go my way, but whatever, man. We’re 1-1. We could run it back somewhere like Vegas, make it a neutral place, and let’s f—ing throw down.”
Both men kept up an impressive pace, with over 1400 punches thrown between the two of them according to CompuBox. Diaz is renowned for being a volume striker, but Masvidal actually topped him in total punches landed 182 to 151.
“From what I saw, I definitely hurt him more than he ever hurt me,” Masvidal said. “I got way cleaner shots, especially to the body. He never even did anything to my body. I definitely hurt his body, and a couple of times I’d hurt him, he backed up. He never he put a lot of pressure. He was coming forward, but he never hurt me. I don’t think he landed any meaningful punches, you know.”
Here’s the scorecard for Nate Diaz vs Jorge Masvidal, for those curious #DiazMasvidal pic.twitter.com/gpP0mTQ3pz
— Damon Martin (@DamonMartin) July 7, 2024
“Eight rounds to two is, like, f—ing nuts. But whatever, it’s California, you know? I knew I had to get a knockout or, you know, some shit like this [would happen].”
Masvidal continued to suggest the two should rematch, and he felt it should happen in the ring again.
“Definitely boxing,” he said of a third fight. “Call me a sore loser. I wanna do boxing. And if he wants to do MMA after that, we could do it. But I definitely wanna do boxing over everything. Do it again.”
Past that, “Gamebred” refused to share any potential names and (refreshingly) didn’t call out Jake Paul like Diaz did.
“With the UFC, I got a a couple more [fights]. With Fanmio, I got two,” he said of his future. “So I’m definitely gonna do those two boxing matches … Right now, we just hit the drawing board, see who comes up, take his ass out.”