Count Jorge Masvidal as another fighter who sees dollar signs.
“Gamebred” took on Donald Cerrone last night (Jan. 28) inside the Pepsi Center in Denver, Colorado. Masvidal turned in what many would consider to be the best performance of his mixed martial arts (MMA) career. He earned a TKO win in the second round.
While many would call the win Masvidal’s biggest to date, he doesn’t feel that’s the case. He explained why in a post-fight interview backstage (via Flo Combat):
“I’ll let the fans say that, it may be my biggest win the UFC, but I’ve been all over the world kicking butt for a long time before I got here. In my book, no, it’s not the biggest, but in the UFC people can rank it wherever they want, but I fought some greats back then outside of the UFC.”
Masvidal has had 43 professional bouts. While he’s only 32, he isn’t exactly as fresh as a daisy. He wants to ensure that he’s making a significant amount of money for his time spent inside the Octagon.
Two fighters who Masvidal feels could bring in that money are the Diaz brothers, Nick and Nate. It makes sense, especially when you consider that Nate earned $2 million for his last match-up with Conor McGregor at UFC 202.
“The money interests me. The Diaz’s–one is at [1]55 and one is at [1]70 or [1]85. I’ll fight wherever the money is, and I’ll fight whoever is in front of me. There are no brothers and sisters in this game. My only concern is to feed my family. Whoever gets put in front of me, that’s who gets taken down.”
The American Top Team Fighter was ranked No. 12 in the welterweight rankings before his contest with “Cowboy.” He is sure to shoot up the rankings a great deal, possibly as high as the top five.
