The next big welterweight clash has been determined, and Jorge Masvidal is shedding some insight into how it came about.
The UFC welterweight division has been the subject of much Chaos in terms of matchmaking recently, but by the end of a crazy last week, the UFC 244 main event was solidified: Jorge Masvidal vs. Nate Diaz for the makeshift Baddest Mother Fucker championship. But Jorge Masvidal was nearly fighting for a different, more official championship at Madison Square Garden until the trigger was pulled on the Diaz fight:
“They offered me a fight with Usman and went back and forth, maybe a day on the numbers and stuff like that,” Masvidal said on the Ariel Helwani MMA Show recently. “And when we got to where I liked it and it was comfortable, I said, yeah, let’s do it. I’m in.
“Usman didn’t say the same thing till later. While that later was going on, they reached out to Nate. Nate said, ‘I’m in.’ Let’s just make it right for me. And they approached me back again and they said, ‘Hey, would you like to fight Nate?’ And I said, ‘OK, let’s fight Nate.’ So that’s how it happened.”
Recent reports have stated that Kamaru Usman turned down the Jorge Masvidal fight, but Masvidal’s account of events suggests that a fight with Usman was ready to go, but the UFC opted to create a BMF title fight instead. This potentially leaves the door open for the originally planned Usman/Covington title fight in the near future.
Do you believe the UFC made the right decision by booking Jorge Masvidal against Nate Diaz instead of Kamaru Usman?
