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The welterweight star and ‘BMF’ champion admits that he and Dana White “don’t see eye-to-eye” on much of anything.
When it comes to Jon Jones and Jorge Masvidal, and their current contract negotiations with the UFC, it doesn’t sound like either one of them plan on backing down. While Jones recently told Steve-O’s ‘Wild Ride’ podcast that he could see himself sitting out for as long as two or three years to make his point about fighters needing a bigger piece of the UFC pie, Masvidal put out a video on his own YouTube channel to respond to some specific comments from the UFC president.
Most notably, Masvidal took issue with White’s assertion that fighting isn’t a “career,” but really just an “opportunity.” And while that in and of itself should seem like an argument for fighters to get paid as much as possible as fast as possible, White seemed to imply that it’s actually a reason fighters should be accepting of whatever chances may come their way, instead of getting into “all this money sh-t.”
“I want to address something actually, because of the Dana White thing,” Masvidal said (transcript via MMA Fighting). “Dana White said the other day – and maybe you can explain this – he said this is not a career, this is an opportunity. I’ve been doing this 16 years, sh-t I’ve had a lot of opportunity, huh? That’s crazy. So, it’s not a career Dana White, that’s interesting to know man. I really think sometimes we don’t see eye-to-eye on anything you f-cking you say, bro. How is this not a career, you know? It’s crazy.”
Still, for all their tense negotiations and public turmoil, Masvidal eventually made it clear that he doesn’t actually have any “animosity” toward White. Instead, White is more like a “co-worker” whose interests are in direct opposition to his own.
“He’s my co-worker,” Masvidal said. “It’s not like I’m going to go hang out with him anywhere anytime soon or anything like that. I don’t have no animosity towards him but I also don’t really like him too much either because he has to do his job which is to generate the most money for his company. I got to do my job which is to generate the most money for me and myself. So, you see where that clashes? You know, we’re not always going to see eye-to-eye but I don’t think he’s like a devil or this evil f-cking person. I just think he is doing his job and I got to do mine.”
Still, with a promotion that has long put the necessity of a continuous, busy schedule and low-cost, compliant talent above any interest in catering to star talent, it may just be that fighters like Masvidal and Jones are going to find the promotion surprisingly willing to move on without them. As long as they’re under contract and getting offered fights at their current rates, the UFC likely feels it can afford to wait them out for as long as it takes.
And for a fighter like Masvidal who’s only really just entered the star headlining portion of his time in MMA, that could be a career killer.