UFC Welterweight Jorge Masvidal hasn’t fought at Lightweight since 2015, when he lost a close split-decision to Al Iaquinta. This doesn’t mean that he isn’t open to returning to Lightweight, as long as the money is right.
Since making the switch and moving up to Welterweight, Jorge has built himself into an elite-fighter. In 2019, he had the best year of his career when he knocked out Darren Till, Ben Askren and TKO’d Nate Diaz to capture the new, one-off BMF title. This set him up nicely to be next in line to fight for the Welterweight title.
Even though has found a new home at Welterweight, Masvidal says he would back to Lightweight and fight Khabib Nurmagomedov. He admits that making Lightweight would not be easy, so the money would have to be right.
“Yeah, if the UFC gives us an offer that I couldn’t refuse. To cut the weight at this point would be horrendous for me. I haven’t made that weight in a while and soon as they took the IV’s out from the UFC I couldn’t no longer make 155-pounds,” Jorge Masvidal said on the HalfCast podcast with Mark Hunt and Tyson Pedro. “So, I went up as fast as I could. For me to do that now, I’d have to put myself through so much suffering. At 170 pounds I am already five percent body fat. So, the rest is just straight water, about 18 or 19 pounds is just water.”
It doesn’t seem likely that Masvidal would drop back down to Lightweight, since he has been making a lot of noise at Welterweight. Regardless, it doesn’t rule out the possibility of a fight against Nurmagomedov, since the undefeated Lightweight kingpin could move up in weight. If Masvidal wins the Welterweight strap, things could get really interesting.
At the moment, Jorge Masvidal is focused on Kamaru Usman as the two are set to throw down in July 2020, at International Fight Week. Once the dust settles, he will most likely be looking for the biggest payday, which mean dropping down to Lightweight to fight Nurmagomedov.
This article first appeared on CLOSEDGUARDMEDIA.com on 20th February, 2020.
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