NEW YORK – Jorge Masvidal is down to run it back with Nate Diaz after UFC 244, he just doesn’t know how soon it’ll happen.
Masvidal (35-13 MMA, 12-6 UFC) earned TKO victory over Diaz (20-12 MMA, 15-10 UFC) via doctor stoppage on Saturday when the fight was stopped between rounds due to multiple facial lacerations. “Gamebred” was well ahead in the fight at that point, but the result left some anticlimactic feelings.
Diaz immediately began to campaign for a rematch with Masvidal after the conclusion of the event at Madison Square Garden in New York. UFC president Dana White wasn’t keen on the idea, but Masvidal is open to it. He said it all depends on the circumstances, though.
“I’m the most competitive person this whole (expletive) company has ever seen,” Masvidal told reporters, including MMA Junkie, post-fight at UFC 244. “I don’t want nothing to take my greatness, to say some guy tripped on a pebble and that’s how I beat him. That’s not me. I want to end them, I want to send them off to another dimension and I respect the dude but that’s the type of artwork I like to do. I didn’t get him on this one.
“Are we going to rematch tomorrow or next week? I don’t know. But it will happen at some point. I’m open to the money and he’s a money fight. If Canelo (Alvarez) wants to get his ass kicked I’ll take that fight. I’m just here to get the biggest checks possible. But Nate is in the future for a fact. If we’re doing it the next year or the year after that, but it’s going to happen.”
Drama around the stoppage aside, Masvidal was pleased with his performance at UFC 244. He would’ve liked to end the bout in more of a highlight-reel fashion, but it wasn’t to be on this night.
If the fight hadn’t been called off by the doctor, though, Masvidal said he would’ve ended it himself.
“As far as painting my Picasso, I almost got to do it,” Masvidal said. “I heard a lot of comments, I read a lot of media stuff, I heard a lot of people saying the later the fight goes or when it goes to the ground in certain situations I would be outworked and outclassed. Not happening. I want somebody to pull up a fight that I’ve faded in the fourth or the fifth round. That’s not going to happen. What happened in the third was just sign to keep happening in the fourth and in the fifth.
“That’s exactly how we saw the fight playing out. We touch him up on the chin, if he’s still there when we touch him up n the chin then we’ll go to the body, we’ll win the wrestling scrambles, we’ll win the clinch work and he’ll get tired from the damage we’re putting out.”
Whether a rematch with Diaz comes to fruition remains to be seen. Masvidal has many good options ahead of him, and that includes a potential fight for the UFC welterweight title against the winner of Kamaru Usman vs. Colby Covington, who meet next month at UFC 245.
Masvidal doesn’t know for sure what’s going to be next, but there’s one thing he is confident in after the most successful year of his career, and that’s that he can’t be beat.
“I’ll prove it (my equal) don’t exist,” Masvidal said. “I had a good run in 2019. It’ll be even better in 2020.”
Jorge Masvidal says Nate Diaz rematch will happen 'for a fact' – he's just not sure when
