What’s Next For Jorge Masvidal?

Photo by Jeff Bottari/Zuffa LLC

Another weekend of fisticuffs has come and gone, as UFC 251 ushered in the “Fight Island” era last Sat. night (July 11, 2020) in Yas Island, Abu Dhabi. Plenty of fighters were left feeling the post-fight blues, including Max Holloway, who suffered his second straight defeat to Alexander Volkanovski (see it). And Jose Aldo, who was beatdown by Petr Yan, failing to win his second title in as many divisions (relieve it here).

But which fighter is suffering from the worst post-fight hangover?

Jorge Masvidal.

Coming into his headlining title fight against division champion, Kamaru Usman, “Gamebred” was already at a disadvantage due to the fact that he took the fight on six days notice and had a drastic weight cut to make in a week. While Masvidal was adamant that would not be an issue come fight night, it clearly was, as Usman’s wrestling and gas tank proved to be too much for “Gamebred.”

Still, credit is due to Masvidal for even agreeing to such a dangerous opponent on such short time. And while he ultimately came up short, this past week proved just how big a star “Gamebred” is — an can continue to be — for the promotion.

After inking his new deal, Masvidal proceeded to steal all of the headlines away from the champion himself, as he was the talk of “Fight Island” and the buzz on social media. Not to mention, the announcement that he’d be sharing the cover of the “EA Sports UFC 4” video game with Middleweight champion, Israel Adesanya, was made on fight day.

Will a rematch between Usman and Masvidal prove differently if “Gamebred” has a full camp under his belt? We will never know unless they run it back. That being said, Masvidal is confident he now has the formula to take out “The Nigerian Nightmare.”

“I hate coming up short,” said Masvidal at the post-event press conference (watch it). “I’m not going to make no excuses, he was the better man tonight. There was some areas where I didn’t give him enough credit, and some areas where I felt with a better training camp I could definitely surpass him. I think I showed a lot of my wrestling on six days notice, that I’m not too easy to take down or hold down on the ground.”

But a rematch likely won’t happen anytime soon. And that’s okay.

While many were hoping for a win from Masvidal just to see where this crazy ride would go next, Jorge is still a threat at 170 pounds and a star that can be marketed by the promotion. I mean, he still has “The Rock” backing him, and if UFC broke the bank to lock him down for UFC 251 and the foreseeable future, they will make the most of it by trying to push him in big fights. Because let’s be honest, as dominant as Usman has been, the story of UFC 251 was Masvidal.

And sometimes that’s just how the ball rolls, for better or worse.

As for who he should face next, perhaps it’s the perfect time to book a fight between he and Colby Covington. They were both defeated by Usman, they hate each other, and they can finally settle their longstanding beef after their friendship turned sour.

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