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Jorge Masvidal's stock is at an all-time high following his win over Nate Diaz at UFC 244 and his great 2019 in general. In the eyes of many, Gamebred and Israel Adesanya are the only two names that qualify for "Fighter of the year".
Masvidal has been open about the fact that it's not the championship he cares about but the biggest paycheque, which is why he has been anticipating a fight against Nick Diaz lately. He also said that his next fight will be the one with the "most zeroes" on his cheque and even though he should ideally be next in line for a title shot after Kamaru Usman vs Colby Covington, he doesn't seem to care that much.
When talking to Yahoo Sports (H/T credit MMA Fighting), he downplayed the styles of both Covington and Usman, stating that he was unimpressed with both. In the eyes of many fans, the controversial Covington had a very impressive victory over Robbie Lawler where he dominated the former Champion. However, Masvidal downplayed that, saying:
“In some aspects, yeah, he threw 500 punches but he never hurt Robbie once. If you’re just doing this cause you got the guy tired from wrestling, I don’t give it credit,” Masvidal said. “Like they always say, it’s so cliché but there’s levels to this. There’s a reason why Colby wouldn’t want the fight. If he could pick guys, he wouldn’t want the fight.
When asked as to whether Usman's wrestling pressure and cardio impressed him, Masvidal simply responded "Not at all" and continued:
“I think there’s some things he does well, which is kind of stall. He just gets to a leg and takes guys down. I’m a fan of grappling but I like to see grappling offensively.
“He can’t kick nothing. It’s like me saying there’s a MMA guy that’s a great, great boxer technique-wise, nah, it’s like he’s a great boxer for MMA. Maybe Usman’s a good kicker for YMCA, the public club, but he’s not kicking me. The guy would never land a kick on me.”
Many feel as though Masvidal has finally unlocked his potential and he's making the most of the spotlight he has. 2020 is going to be an extremely interesting year for Masvidal and it seems that for the first time in his career, he can choose who he wants to fight. Nick Diaz and Conor McGregor are the two biggest names being brought up.
