Jorge Masvidal comes up with a master plan to finally get over the mountain of his career.
At UFC 272, Masvidal served as one half of the main event, facing off against former friend and teammate Colby Covington in one of the sport’s most anticipated grudge matches in recent years. Unfortunately for Masvidal, things weren’t going well for him. “Gamebred” was largely dominated in the fight, losing by a broad unanimous decision.
Things only got worse for Masvidal from there when he was arrested for allegedly assaulting Covington outside a Miami steakhouse two weeks after their fight. Since then, Masvidal has largely kept a low profile, but recently broke his silence by speaking to Logan Paul’s IMPAULSIVE podcast, in which he declined to comment on the current allegations he’s facing, but spoke about UFC 272 for the first time.
“I was bloody angry,” Masvidal said. “I was upset, and I just like being isolated when I get like that. It’s better for me. Take a few days to figure it out and if I have a problem and I can’t figure it out damn it’s a real problem. I might fail at something, but if I could find a way to fix it, then I can go back and bring it up again, then I can sleep peacefully at night. So that’s what I did – five, six days in this nowhere, like ‘F***’, and then I came up with a plan, and now I’m going to execute that plan.”
That plan is apparently pretty simple: Masvidal will wrestle. A lot.
The “BMF” conceded that Covington proved to be a difficult fight for him due to Covington’s superior wrestling skills, an Achilles’ heel that Masvidal had previously bitten.
Now, however, Masvidal wants to do everything in his power to solve the problem.
“Get back to work in another way immediately,” Masvidal said. “I’ve been in this sport for quite a while… so I have a lot of data that I can use to go back and analyze what’s working and what’s not to solve these mysteries.” I have a problem with wrestlers. It’s a couple of times that I’ve had the problems. Not just a guy who was decent [but] The more outstanding wrestlers, I had a problem.
“With wrestlers, when they take me out of my element and they’re able to keep pushing that hug game even if I’m taking it in a neutral direction, I’m like, ‘F***, I’ve expended a lot of extra energy ‘that does.’ Knowing these things, I have a slightly different plan and formula to address these issues that I’ve had with the damn wrestlers for most of my career.
“The current best program in the country over the last 10 years is Penn State,” Masvidal continued. “I’ve got some good friends over there, so I’m going to spend some time in Pennsylvania, wrestling in the morning, wrestling at night, wrestling in the morning, wrestling at night and keep doing that because I don’t.” I don’t feel like I need to work on my boxing – not being cocky – or my kicks. It’s there anytime. I just need to sharpen it before fights. So one of my main plans right now is to wrestle day and night and see what comes out of it.
“Then go back to the sport of MMA and see where I stand. I don’t know how long this journey will take. I don’t know if I’ll be going there for six months or six weeks until I get this breakthrough, but I know it just comes from being in there.”
When Masvidal returns as one of the UFC’s biggest stars, there will be no shortage of potential opponents for the “BMF” champion. Conor McGregor, Leon Edwards and a rematch with Nate Diaz have all been circulated as fights that could make sense for Masvidal next. Gamebred says he’s not dealing with it at the moment, but predicts violence whenever he returns.
“I’m not thinking that far yet,” said Masvidal. “I’m only going to sharpen these tools. Just wrestle, wrestle and fuck, let’s see what comes of it. And once I feel like I’ve improved, I’ve leveled up, I’ve met every damn Super Saiyan, we’ll figure out who the fuck I’m gonna murder.”