"He got a pretty good cartilage tear" - Jorge Masvidal's coach Mike Brown details the injuries that forced 'Gamebred' out of UFC 269

Jorge Masvidal was forced to withdraw from his highly-anticipated UFC 269 bout with Leon Edwards after suffering an injury weeks before the showdown.

The news was announced by UFC chief business officer Hunter Campbell in a statement to ESPN. An undisclosed injury was cited as the reason for the change to the December 11 event, keeping the specifics under wraps.

Jorge Masvidal's coach Mike Brown has now detailed the injury that forced 'Gamebred' out of the final pay-per-view of the year. During an interview with ESPN MMA, Brown said:

"Jorge Masvidal was training like crazy, man. This guy was back to the laboratory as always, working his a** off and he was in shape. I feel like we were just starting to begin to peak to the fight a little bit but I don't know how many weeks we were out. Maybe four weeks out and he got a pretty good cartilage tear. A pretty tough rib injury and I know it was significant where you are not going to be training for like four to six weeks when you have a major tear like that. It was going to be impossible to go through with a fight at that point so we had to cut it."

Watch ESPN MMA's full interview with Mike Brown below:

Jorge Masvidal was heading into the UFC 269 fight with Leon Edwards with the hope of rebounding from his two consecutive title losses to welterweight champion Kamaru Usman.

Meanwhile, Leon Edwards is on a 10-fight unbeaten streak. His latest win in the promotion came over Nate Diaz at UFC 263. He secured a unanimous decision victory over the Stockton native.

Following Jorge Masvidal's withdrawal from UFC 269, Edwards said he had inquired about Masvidal's condition, but didn't receive any additional details. 'Rocky' also suggested he already knew Masvidal was going to pull out of their fight.

---

Jorge Masvidal's reveals timeline for a return

After weeks of silence, Jorge Masvidal has finally opened up about when fans will likely see him return to the cage. In an interview on The MMA Hour, the 37-year old gave an estimated timeline for his recovery. Masvidal said:

“I told the UFC that we could push it back further. It’s up to Leon and from his initial response, he doesn’t want to wait and I don’t blame him. If he has an option to fight for a title or wait two more months for me, I don’t know what he wants to do or nor do I give a f*ck. All I know is, if he wants to go February or March, we can go. If he doesn’t want to wait, then he’s onto the next thing.”

Watch Jorge Masvidal's full interview on The MMA Hour below: