It was clear how the UFC metal saw Jorge Masvidal toward the beginning of 2019. Is it safe to say that it wasn’t?
To Dana White and Co., they was a venturing stone. Masvidal thought something very similar.
“I want to say you’re a mind reader,” Masvidal revealed to MMA Junkie during Monday’s UFC 244 telephone call when gotten some information about this.
In the UFC’s resistance, it was difficult to contend something else. Masvidal passed on all of 2018 in the wake of spending a bit of the year shooting a Spanish-language unscripted television show, and he was 4-5 in his past nine battles going back to April 2015.
At the time, in January, rising British star Darren Till was one of the UFC’s top picks, saw as a star really taking shape – youthful, capable, can junk as well as anyone. Be that as it may, Till likewise was only a couple of months expelled from the main loss of his profession subsequent to getting educated by Tyron Woodley before being submitted in the second round of their UFC 228 welterweight title battle.
Thus, White and the UFC go betweens went to Masvidal. A success over the 16-year veteran with name an incentive among bad-to-the-bone MMA fans surely would get Till in the groove again – aside from it didn’t work out that way. Masvidal took out Till in the second round of their UFC on ESPN+ 5 main event in London.
Ten months, a “3-piece and a pop,” and one record-breaking flying knee later, Masvidal approaches the greatest battle of his profession. They and Nate Diaz will feature UFC 244, maybe the greatest card of the year, on Saturday at Madison Square Garden and battle for a made-up-yet at the same time important “BMF” title belt. And keeping in mind that the initial step here was the Till knockout, Masvidal hasn’t overlooked their planned reason.
Or then again how insulted they felt.
“Maybe they were. Maybe they weren’t,” Masvidal said of the UFC using their in hopes of a Till rebound. “Me? I was just licking my chops, man, like ‘I can’t believe they’re gonna give me this dude.’ I knew they’d been pushing him real hard. And in I way, it was like, I beat that dude (Donald Cerrone), too. I beat him first, and I didn’t get the same push that he got after the ‘Cowboy’ fight. So I was like, ‘I wanna fight this dude. I wanna hurt him.’ And it’s not like I dislike him or nothing on a personal level; I think the kid’s cool. But I just wanted to scrap. …
“The UFC had to learn the hard way. I’m glad to teach the UFC lessons, life lessons like, hey, don’t ever underestimate me.”
As throughout everyday life, in some cases it’s interesting how things work out in the battle game. Only two months before being reserved against Till, Masvidal was connected to a battle with Nick Diaz. Masvidal was happy about the matchup in light of his regard for the Diaz siblings as contenders – “the dog in them,” as they put it.
For Masvidal, there was no better method to come back from a year-long cutback. So when the battle with the senior Diaz sibling failed to work out, it was disheartening.
“I remember at the moment I was a little heartbroken,” Masvidal said. “I had stepped away from the sport for a year. I came back, and obviously I’m excited. I’m like a kid in the Christmas store, the same way when Nate called me out that (my fight with Nick) is gonna materialize. So when that doesn’t happen, I was devastated.”
Mavidal proceeded, “I was coming off two losses, and I was in the darkest of the dark places I’ve been to. And I’ve been to some dark places from time to time. I slowly but surely started coming out, and the person that came out of that dark place is not the person that went into that dark place. That person is no longer with us. That old ‘Gamebred’ inspired the new one, and he’s here just ready to go.”
Few could’ve envisioned when 2019 started that Masvidal, everything considered, would turn into a genuine UFC star. Aside from Masvidal himself consistently accepted.
“Since I came back, I’ve seen everything that was gonna unfold and unravel,” Masvidal said. “I looked at the whole landscape. I looked at No. 1 through No. 10, and I said, ‘Man, I’m gonna have a field day if they let me back in here. If they don’t stop me from fighting this year, I’m gonna hurt a lot of feelings.’ And that’s all I’ve been doing, man.”
“I’m telling you: This year was big, and next year’s gonna be even bigger.”