Things between UFC welterweight champion Kamaru Usman and presumed potential title challenger Jorge Masvidal heated up today in South Florida.
The two were doing separate appearances during the buildup to Sunday’s Super Bowl LIV in Miami and needed to be separated by UFC public relations and other event staff when they got into a verbal altercation.
But before that even went down, Masvidal (35-13 MMA, 11-4 UFC) sat down with Jim Rome for his “The Jim Rome Show” on Radio Row at Miami Convention Center and had plenty of words to say about Usman (16-1 MMA, 11-0 UFC).
And in a way, Masvidal managed to predict the run-in they had later.
“This is for Usman: I’m going to embarrass you, whether it’s on national TV, or I see you right now here today, I’m going to embarrass you for the words you have said,” Masvidal said on Rome’s show.
Usman is coming off a dominant win over Colby Covington to defend his title in the UFC 245 main event this past December. Till now, Covington has been Usman’s biggest bad-blood rival.
Masvidal in November won the UFC’s supposed one-time-only “BMF” belt with a TKO stoppage of Nate Diaz at UFC 244 at Madison Square Garden. That win capped off a year that saw him go 3-0 and win many MMA sites’ “Fighter of the Year” honor thanks to that victory, a record-setting 5-second KO of Ben Askren, and a stoppage of Darren Till.
Still, Masvidal recalled Usman passing an opportunity to stoke the flames for a potential fight between them after his win over Covington.
“He could’ve cut one of the best promos ever if he could actually talk,” Masvidal said. “He got asked after his fight (with Covington), ‘Hey, what do you think about Masvidal?’ I’m the ‘Fighter of the Year.’ … I’m in his weight class. And when they said ‘Jorge Masvidal,’ he said, ‘Who? I don’t know who that is, but I want to fight a guy that’s ranked under him that he already beat.’”
That said, Masvidal seemed to think a title fight between them might get done and alluded to contract talks coming soon.
“Kamaru Usman isn’t a fighter. He’s more of a politician,” Masvidal said. “… We’re going to go into negotiations and we’ll see what happens.”
Jorge Masvidal to UFC champ Kamaru Usman: 'I'm going to embarrass you from start to finish'
