Jorge Masvidal sees Conor McGregor vs. Donald Cerrone playing out different ways

Jorge Masvidal has millions of reasons to root for Conor McGregor on Jan. 18.

A matchup with the former UFC lightweight and featherweight champion could make for a gigantic payday for the welterweight competitor known as “Gamebred,” to the point that Masvidal indicated Monday he’d prefer a McGregor fight at this point over a bout with current UFC welterweight champ Kamaru Usman.

That first fight would in large part hinge upon McGregor defeating Donald Cerrone in their welterweight main event at UFC 246 in Las Vegas.

And the way Masvidal sees it, whether or not that happens depends on which “Cowboy” shows up to fight McGregor: Will it be the gunslinger who comes out looking to put on a show from the outset, or a patient fighter who is willing to wait McGregor out?

Which way will it go? Masvidal is taking a wait-and-see approach to the fight.

“It can go many ways,” Masvidal told ESPN on Monday. “Conor is great off the block. He’s phenomenal off the start. ‘Cowboy’ is a slow starter. Conor has tremendous speed and timing in the beginning, good power, so I think he can catch him early.”

Masvidal knows the ‘Cowboy’ half of this equation from experience. He finished Cerrone early in the second round when the duo met at UFC on FOX 23 in 2017. But word on beating McGregor is that if you get him past the midpoint of the second round, he begins to tire. And that’s where things will get interesting.

“If ‘Cowboy’ comes out to grapple like he has in the past with decent strikers and even good grapplers like Rick Story, who he was able to take down and create a lot of offense like that … if that ‘Cowboy’ comes out, he can mix things up real nice. And then he can start to flow and get into his game of high kicks and punching and being tricky, like a dual threat to Conor.” 

Still, Cerrone’s approach has been all over the map over the course of his career, which is part of his enduring appeal. And ‘Cowboy’ might get caught up in the moment and start to throw down. In that case, Masvidal sees a McGregor victory, the one which could enable a bout between McGregor and the “BMF” champ.

“If (Cerrone) just comes out to fight it out, I see Conor winning within the first two rounds.”