There are some things that need to be said to preface this article before I dive right into the career and rise of the baddest mother f****r in the UFC. First, I will not be touching on Masvidal’s upbringing or personal life. I do not know him personally, I wasn’t there when he was growing up, I didn’t live in his home, and I’ve never spoken to the man himself. I have to keep this 100 percent real. I’m not going to Google quotes and bite off of other people’s work. A lot of other articles can have quotes from him and things like that, but you never know if they were exact or not. With out sitting down with Masvidal or speaking on the phone, I’d like to show a level of respect to these men and women that isn’t very common in today’s media. Also I can’t, as a man, try and speak to you about another man’s life without his permission. If you want that kind of bull***t, go on Wikipedia. This article is about what I’ve seen over the many years of watching Masvidal fight. This is about the things I have actually seen him say. This is about the real reasons Gamebred is my favorite current fighter and how that came to be. It is about what I think should be next for him. It is about where I hope to see him go because even without knowing him, he’s earned an immense amount of respect from me and many people I know. With that all being said, let’s do this!
The first time I ever saw Jorge Masvidal fight was actually by accident. I was training boxing at the time. One of the people I always watched fight even though it was MMA was Yves Edwards. My coach told me that this fight was going to be Yves toughest fight yet and I needed to tune in. I couldn’t that night but my coach being the fight maniac he was, taped it for me. He handed me the tape the next night, even though I already knew the result. He said “Nick , watch this. Dude is a savage”. I went home that night and yes threw the tape in my VCR. It was 2007 and yes I still had my VCR. The Fight started and immediately I was amped up. Masvidal came out on fire. He was throwing head kicks, pumping out the 1-2 setting up body kicks, moving in and out blocking the onslaught of kicks from the feared striker. Making Yves miss like no one I’d seen do before. Still, was an even fight. Round 2 more of the same until Masvidal was able to take Edwards down. He got control on top and pounded the body with right hooks. Masvidal also landed a few to the head cutting his opponent open. Edwards got to his feet, and a few more exchanges were thrown. All of a sudden, BOOM! Right head kick out of nowhere, fight over. That’s when I first saw the patented Masvidal smirk and celebration we all love to see when he hits the octagon these days. From that day forward I missed fights, I watched some, but I always kept track. It has been said by Masvidal this was the fight that made him most nervous beforehand and Yves has said that Masvidal is the best fighter he’s ever worked with. Respect from 2 greats!
I Watched him leave BoDog and join Bellator. I Watched him win. I Watched him lose. Either way I didn’t care, it was fun and he was a warrior which is what I wanted to be training and fighting. I want to be clear here. I had other favorite fighters, mainly boxers like Manny Pacquiao and always Mike Tyson, also currently Teofimo Lopez, Lomachenko, Errol Spence, Terrence Crawford, and Deontay Wilder.I’ve got other MMA fighters I follow like Israel Adesanya, Khabib, The Diaz Brothers and Yoel Romero among many others. I have players from every team in every sport that I follow and could draw connections to throughout my life… so I’m not a fanboy by any means, I just appreciate hard work and a no bullshit fighter/athlete when I see one. I saw Masvidal leave Bellator and join Strikeforce eventually leading to his UFC debut. Now I’m not going to go over all of his fights, we don’t have that kind of time. I am however going to go over some key moments in his career that I think helped mold him into the man we see today.
Masvidal won his debut. He lost some, he won some in his next few fights. He beat Michael Chiesa with hands down my favorite submission, the D’arce choke. He lost a couple decisions that I thought were definitely his wins, namely Henderson and Iaquinta. At the time, the TKO of Donald “Cowboy” Cerrone was definitely his biggest win and it gave us one of my favorite quotes “Im A real fighter, there’s dudes who hear my name and hang up the phone. Im not on social media and shit which is why my name aint out there. Dana White, I got 200K that you can’t find anyone that can beat me”. The man came out and beat down his opponent, who was no scrub, and called out the owner of the company to make better fights. Classic. The next 2 fights were tough. He lost to both Demian Maia and Stephen Thompson. The Thompson fight being particularly rough and one-sided. Clearly it was rough on Masvidal too. He took a 16 month layoff and in his comeback fight, in typical Masvidal fashion, took on one of the toughest dudes out there in Darren Till. I couldn’t wait for that fight. I tuned in and when Till dropped him in the first round, I was almost defeated. Until, I saw that Masvidal smirk and I smiled because we all know during a fight, that smirk means RUN! “Street Jesus” ended up baptizing Till in the 2nd round. We all know what happened next. He knocked out Askren in 5 seconds(Thank God no one likes that guy). He handily took the BMF title match against Nate. He blew up. He became a rockstar in 2019. Fighter of the Year. Period. End of Story. Finally a man I Watched take whatever fight he could and grind and work and sacrifice was getting the recognition he had deserved for years.
So what’s Next? My hope is that Masvidal finally gets some damn respect from fight makers and the UFC. What I wanna see is one of 3 things. 1). I’d love to see him get his money! The Conor fight would be great. I’m not a Conor fan but I respect anyone that walks into that octagon. They are all warriors and athletes, better than any one drawing opinions who wouldn’t know a fight if it hit them right in the mouth. Funny, because as I’m writing this, I’m watching an interview Jorge did today on the Rich Eisen Show addressing the Conor rumors. Anyway Jorge said what we already all knew, Conor doesn’t want the fight. Rightly so. On some Good Will Hunting shit, Masvidal said that when looking at Conor, he sees numbers and openings. A true student of the fight game. Credit to Masvidal though. Eisen kept challenging him on the Conor thing and He just kept his cool and laid out the facts. 2). The man deserves some gold around his waist! The Fight with Kamaru Usman would be huge and is one that Jorge has earned. 16 years of devotion to the sport, put some respect on his name and give him that title shot! He presents a ton of problems to Usman with his body work. Kicks and punches to the body are something Usman clearly doesn’t handle well. Just look at the Covington fight. This seems to be the most likely and would be, in my opinion, a fight of the year candidate. 3). That whole thing I said about respecting people that fight, doesn’t apply to Colby Covington. I mean the MAGA gimmick is smart because without it no one would care who he is. But the MAGA gimmick is not the reason I can’t stand Colby. It’s what he says about other fighters. These 2 used to be friends. They trained together at the best facility in the country, American Top Team. Yesterday, Colby trashed Masvidal calling him a journeyman and saying Jorge had an ass whooping coming his way. Colby showed a lot of guts against Usman but come on man, humble yourself and keep your mouth shut especially coming off a fight where it was wired so. Chill out and earn your way back. Period. If any of these 3 happen, real fight fans would be advanced buying these fights no problem.
I understand that there’s thousands of athletes I could have picked. I know Masvidal isn’t the “biggest” or “prettiest” name in sports, but this is MY blog. I’m highlighting men and women who have impacted my life greatly. I could have picked Kobe this week, but I wrote him an entire article on Sunday giving him his due. I wanted to change the subject. Im hurt just as much as any sports fan is about this unprecedented tragedy. I wanted to write about something that brought me and maybe some other people joy. Get their minds off things for a while. I mean no disrespect at all. I picked Masvidal because he resonates with my family make up. Myself, my wife and my 3 kids don’t order a lot of fights. We can’t afford them. But be damn certain if Masvidal is on that card, we paid, we’re watching, and the only one talking better be Joe Rogan. It’s about what he represents. Hard work, Sacrifice, the refusal to give up, all things I bring into my own life and teach my kids. Colby wants to call him a “Miami thug”, well that “thug” has my respect and admiration for being where he is now through the work of him and his team. We can chop it up anytime Jorge. Thank you for what you’ve done and no doubt will continue to do for the UFC and at least for this one fan.
– Nick Mac
To The Rack With Mac 