You’re Not Keeping It Real, Bro!

Photo by Michael Owens/Zuffa LLC/Zuffa LLC

The beef between current Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) welterweight champion, Kamaru Usman, and “BMF” title holder, Jorge Masvidal, is intensifying ahead of their pending title fight, which is currently in talks to go down on July 11, 2020 in Las Vegas, Nevada.

Aside from their war of words, the two men nearly came to blows during a recent run-in at the Super Bowl media day in Miami, Florida (watch it here). While it will be at least five more months before they actually put hands on one another, the verbal warfare is still going strong.

During a recent media scrum in Houston, Texas, Usman continued his assault on “Gamebred,” this time taking aim at the “BMF” champion’s sudden change in personality, saying that despite popular belief, he isn’t exactly keeping it real.

“I’ve been the same guy since I came into the UFC,” said Usman via MMA Junkie. “I’ve always been this fly, I’ve always dressed the way I did. It’s just that now I have a bigger platform where everybody gets to see some of those things. I’ve always said the same things that I wanted to say. I’ve always been confident, because that’s the way that I train and I believe in myself and my abilities. I’ve never changed one bit. I tell you what I’m doing to do, I go in there and I get it done.

“It’s kind of funny to me to watch what he’s become,” he said. “It’s the same guy, the same journeyman. But now he’s become everything that he said he wouldn’t be. Everything he fought against, being the cliché, being this and that, he’s exactly that guy right now. But it is what it is, more power to him. At the end of the day, when I sign on the dotted line I’m going to go in there and take care of business.”

“He’s the guy, remember, that never wanted to do media – ah, he’s too good for that, too good for this – but this clown is showing up at fights now with a robe on! This guy’s wearing a suit pretending to be Tony Montana now. He’s turned into everything that he said he wasn’t, that he wouldn’t be.”

According to Kamaru, Jorge got caught up in his own gimmick, which includes “Street Jesus” and the aforementioned Tony Montana character portrayed by Al Pacino in “Scarface.” But he didn’t come up with his characters all alone. According to “The Nigerian Nightmare,” Colby Covington — who knows a thing or three about playing it up for the crowd — helped Masvidal come up with his new persona while they were doing more than just sharing a room during their days as good friends.

“I actually read something the other day that said that him and Colby plotted this while they were sharing a room, sharing a bed together, and sharing women. But it is what it is, that’s what they plotted and it’s coming to fruition. But I’m happy to be the guy to send them both packing.”

Indeed, Usman has already defeated Covington, taking him out via technical knockout at UFC 245. And if all goes as planned, the 170-pound champion will go two-for-two against a couple of the best 170-pound fighters in the world during International Fight Week in “Sin City.”