Las Vegas, NV – After spending the better part of a year building up a bitter rivalry with his former best friend UFC welterweight Jorge Masvidal showed up at UFC 272 on Saturday night with bad intentions. Unfortunately for him the fight did not at all go the way he planned.
“I wrestled like sh*t. I lost a lot of exchanges that if I would have won them I mean on a technical level things could have gone a little different. If I would have made him expend more energy on certain takedowns….the first takedown I gave up he took my back and he rode me pretty good. That got me a little flat. Going into the next and the next round I felt like I won a lot of exchanges. I felt like, on the feet, I did the more damage but it’s a fight. If I could do it all over again I would have gone to college and wrestled my ass off, got my grades up and be able to stuff all these guys up and just keep it on the feet, but I’m just flat on the wrestling brother,” Masvidal told the media in his post-fight scrum.
Masvidal (35-16) lost his main event fight against Colby Covington by unanimous decision.
The build up to UFC 272 put a spotlight on what was once a deep friendship between to up-and-coming welterweights in the UFC turned into a bitter rivalry when the fight business became very personal for Masvidal. Losing to someone like Covington really left a bad taste in his mouth.
“To lose to a b*tch like that, I mean, all he does is talk about people’s kids, religion, nations. Obviously nobody wants to lose to a coward like that. I felt like I lost the wrestling exchanges. The fight, you know whatever, I know I did damage. I think I dropped him twice so it just sucks man. I’m f*cking flat in the wrestling and he jumped on and was able to take me down. One or two times I felt him getting real tired on the takedowns. All the sudden he got that takedown and I was stuffing the second and third attempt. Then on the fourth one he got me down and he’s got good control when he’s on top.”
There were no surprises for Masvidal when facing someone who he had trained with for years.
“More or less what I expected. I know that wouldn’t want to stand in there toe to toe because even if he landed one shot or two or three, when I land one back it’d make a big difference. I felt I hurt him more significantly with my shots, but whatever man still came up short.”
Prior to the fight both men said there would be no post-fight embrace, but there were some words exchanged.
“Just told him ‘You’re still a b*tch’ sh*t like that. I don’t even know what he said bro. I know I just told him ‘Here b*tch, i’ll get you eventually.'”
As for what Masvidal wants next, an eventual rematch with Covington, but he knows he’ll have to earn that fight again.
“Definitely in fact, I get on the winning track and prove myself again and I get that fight, the fight I’d love to take. I feel like I keep improving those positions where I did f*ck up tonight just make it a little bit more taxing on him so when we get to the feet I’m fresher, he’s a little bit worn out, and I can get some big shots in his face and finish him next time.”
Watch the full UFC 272 post-fight press scrum with Jorge Masvidal above. More coverage from the event can be found below.