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Jorge Masvidal no longer sounds interested in fighting for the welterweight title, preferring the money and fame that’d come with a fan friendly superfight.
Jorge Masvidal has better things to do than get hugged for 25 minutes.
That’s the general gist of a new interview between the UFC’s latest star and Yahoo! Sports’ Kevin Iole. In it, Masvidal makes it clear that he has very little interest in fighting the winner of UFC 245’s Kamaru Usman vs. Colby Covington welterweight title fight.
“They’re fighting for the spot to fight me,” Masvidal said (via MMA Fighting). “I’m the ticket at 170 pounds. I’m going to go and get the biggest, best and toughest fights. So it’s looking like we might fight Nick Diaz next, it’s looking like it might be Conor McGregor, obviously those fights come first because of the paycheck and everything it brings while these guys are settling the dust between the hugging championships.”
Out of those two possibilities, it sounded like Masvidal was more into fighting Nick, who has found renewed interest in mixed martial arts after “Gamebred” battered his little brother Nate at UFC 244. Jorge showed little concern about Nick’s fighting condition after five years of sporadic training and heavy clubbing.
“If he’s ever been motivated for a fight, I think it’s going to be this one,” Masvidal said. “I think whatever he’s been doing in the past, he’ll cut it and he’ll get into his ways of fighting. Knowing the Diaz brothers and how much they love and respect each other, I know that guy’s going to come with everything he has. That hypes me up to want to fight. Like let’s f**king do this because you’re not taking nothing what I’ve got. You’re knocking at my front door and you ain’t getting in here. I’m going to stop you right where you stand. That’s how I feel.”
As for McGregor?
“I don’t want to sound like a bully either because since I won the Nate fight, he hasn’t said a peep,” Masvidal said. “If that guy doesn’t want to fight, I’m not bothering nobody. I’m not going to be a bully.”
But with McGregor reportedly entertaining Masvidal as a potential opponent on his road to redemption in 2020, Jorge could end up with a red panty night after all.