“So I say if that’s the case, why doesn’t he try his hand at Valor? We’d love to find out how bad he is.”
Retired MMA and WWE legend Ken Shamrock caused quite the stir earlier this month when he criticized the UFC for hosting a ‘BMF’ title fight between Jorge Masvidal and Nate Diaz at UFC 244.
“So for them to start talking about being a Bad MF, I just kinda laugh and go, oh my gosh, you guys are wearing four-ounce gloves, you fight one time a night, every six months to a year. Really? [Laughs] Come on.”
Shamrock, who fought in the UFC during a time where groin strikes were perfectly legal, acknowledges he stands no chance against Masvidal in today’s competition but stands by his criticism of the BMF title.
“I’m not taking anything from them, because all these guys would whip my butt right now,” Shamrock told MMA Fighting in a recent interview. “All I’m saying is compared to what we had to go through, getting kicked in the face, punched in the back of the head with no gloves, no rules, no time limit, four times in one night, yes, it’s funny.”
The 55-year-old went on to invite Masvidal to his new bare-knuckle start-up, Valor bare-knuckle, to prove ‘Gamebred’ is worthy of the BMF belt. The ex-street fighter battered Diaz enroute to a third-round doctor stoppage earlier this month in the UFC 244 main event, becoming the promotion’s first ever ‘baddest motherf-cker’ champion.
“I don’t think we need a belt to tell people there’s a ‘BMF’ – I don’t understand that,” Shamrock said. “Masvidal fought bare-knuckle. He did backyard brawls just like (Kimbo Slice). So I say if that’s the case, why doesn’t he try his hand at Valor? We’d love to find out how bad he is.”
Masvidal has yet to issue a response to Shamrock, but the 35-year-old is currently focused on securing a welterweight title shot against the winner of Kamaru Usman vs. Colby Covington at UFC 245. The pay-per-view extravaganza, which also features a co-headlining featherweight bout between Max Holloway and Alexander Volkanovski, takes place next month, Dec. 14 at T-Mobile Arena, Las Vegas.