Usman Clubbin’ At 4am The Night Before Khamzat Callup

“I just want to say if that guy has like five-six weeks to prepare for Chimaev, he takes him out. Guaranteed. He knocks his ass dead.”

Retired Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) welterweight Jorge Masvidal got pretty familiar with longtime rival Kamaru Usman before concluding his mixed martial arts (MMA) career earlier this year.

The combatant known as “Gamebred” challenged for Welterweight gold twice during his entertaining 52-fight run, which ended with a record of 35-17. On both occasions, Masvidal looked to overcome “The Nigerian Nightmare,” who was at the height of his powers.

Unfortunately for Masvidal, he came up short on both occasions, first losing a unanimous decision before a devastating second-round knockout in their April 2021 rematch. Usman’s time as champion came to a halt in Aug. 2022 and he now finds himself on a three-fight losing skid for the first time in his hall-of-fame career. The most recent of those three came on just 11 days’ notice at UFC 294 against Khamzat Chimaev, which Usman lost by majority decision.

Had circumstances been normal, Masvidal believes may have gotten a different outcome.

“Funny story, right before he took that fight, hasn’t happened too often, but I saw Kamaru Usman out. It was the craziest stuff ever,” Masvidal told MMA Mania. “I was walking into this establishment, I had my shades on and somebody goes, ‘Jorge Masvidal, what’s up?’ I go, ‘Man, that voice sounds f—king familiar.’ I turned around, this is at 4:30 in the f—king morning, bro. It’s Usman’s ass and he’s got glasses too. What the f—k?

“I look, I must have lost my f—king mind,” he continues. “I lift them (my glasses) up and I go, ‘Usman?!’ and he goes, ‘What’s up, Masvidal?!’ This motherf—ker, bro. That was literally the day before he got the announcement for the fight. So I just want to say if that guy has like five-six weeks to prepare for Chimaev, he takes him out. Guaranteed. He knocks his ass dead.”

Eskimo Bros are out. Abu Dhabi bros are in!

Masvidal is no stranger to short-notice contests, complete with brutal weight cut, jumping in to save the UFC 251 headliner in Abu Dhabi when Gilbert Burns was yanked from the lineup. His prediction for their inevitable rematch, however, did not go according to plan.

Maybe “Gamebred” should have used the tried-and-true Tequila training camp.

On top of the short-notice factor in the Usman vs. Chimaev contest, the three-round bout also took place at Middleweight, providing an extra little wrinkle. Even though it wasn’t a win for Usman, he performed at a high level and felt well enough to consider giving the division one more shot at the least.

With Chimaev knocking on the door of a middleweight title shot, were unlikely to see another Usman fight for the foreseeable future.