There was a time that there were nearly two title bouts on the now canceled UFC 249 card, with one being Tony Ferguson and Justin Gaethje for the vacant UFC Interim Lightweight Title, with the other being a UFC Welterweight Title bout between champion Kamaru Usman and BMF Champion Jorge Masvidal.
Masvidal admits that there were talks for a bout against Usman at UFC 249, but the UFC didn’t meet his financial needs to put the fight together.
“There was a deal on the table, but when the full deal and the whole extent of it got brought through and how it was going to play out, the budget really wasn’t there in a way for what we were asking,” Masvidal said to BT Sport (via Farah Hannoun of MMA Junkie). “The price tag that I put out there, they didn’t wanna pay. This other guy, who knows if he was in or not, but my price wasn’t met. And for the risk-to-reward factor, I wanted to get compensated and the compensation wasn’t really there.”
Former UFC Interim Welterweight Champion Colby Covington had previously stated that Masvidal would purposely price himself out of a title shot, which may or may not have happened here.
The BMF Champion believes that he’ll prove who the better fighter is when a potential bout with Usman happens this July.
“He’s a boring-ass dude,” Masvidal said. “If I’m speaking from a straight tactical point, he’s not going to want to strike, and he doesn’t really fully commit to wrestling either. All he fully commits to is stalling. Just being a (expletive) stall machine. For the first time, he didn’t stall with this guy (Covington), and it was a (expletive) kickboxing match, and the world gave him all types of praise for it because he wasn’t his usual, boring self, and he actually threw some fists. But we all know he’s not gonna throw fists when it comes to me, he’s gonna try to act like he’s gonna throw fists and then he’s gonna go for the takedown, and he’s going to quickly find out I’ll never get held down by that guy. I won’t get out-grappled by that guy. I’ll put my life on it, I’ll put my money on it. I’m in the firm belief system that I’m a better fighter than him and I’m going to prove it in July.”
With the UFC building a “fight island,” it would seem like that would be the perfect location for the potential title encounter to happen at.
