Förra helgen lyckades Jorge Masvidal att besegra Nate Diaz och därmed att bli UFCs första innehavare av “BMF”-titeln någonsin. Efter segern har Masvidal dels uttryckt ett intresse för att möta boxaren Canelo Alvarez men även ett intresse för en match mot vinnaren av den titelmatch i weltervikt som kommer att äga rum under nästa månads UFC 245. I huvudmatchen kommer welterviktsmästaren Kamaru Usman att försvara titeln mot den tidigare interimmästaren Colby Covington.
I en intervju med MMAFighting berättade Usman själv att även han är intresserad av att ett möte mellan honom och Masvidal. Trots intresset av matchen är han dock inte särskilt imponerad av Masvidal som han mest anser har haft tur med vilka matchningar han fått.
I wouldn’t say I’ve been impressed. Because it’s Masvidal, nothing’s changed. He’s the same guy. He’s fought the same way forever. It’s just the luck of the draw. He’s getting that luck of the draw. Let’s be honest, Darren Till dropped him in the first round of their fight, and let’s say if he didn’t land that punch, how does that fight play out? Had he not landed that knee against Ben Askren—and I’m not going to say it’s lucky because he drilled that—how does that fight play out? There’s a lot of questions to be answered. I’ve yet to see him fight a full-on welterweight from start to finish and completely dominate them. Then at that point I can say this is a different guy. But I think right now he’s riding the wave, and he’s got the luck of the draw on his side. Ultimately, you can’t knock anything that he’s done. I think he’s done a phenomenal job with the opportunity he’s been presented with and he’s ran away with it. I’m happy for him on that end.
Usman fortsatte även med att han anser att Masvidal just nu rider en våg av hype som genererats av att han besegrat motståndare som tidigare varit upphypade.
He’s riding that hype right now. That’s the thing with guys like Ben Askren, he came in and he really ran his mouth and really got the people riled up. And so when you create that much hype, and you put a guy like Jorge Masvidal in front of him, and let’s say Askren goes out there and does what he wants to do to Jorge Masvidal, you hear nothing about Jorge Masvidal anymore. Masvidal is the same guy who wins one or two, then loses one or two. It’s still the same guy. Because he landed that knee in such impressive fashion, he stole that hype that Askren was potentially riding. That has a lot to do with where he’s at right now.
Slutligen nämner Usman dock att han är väldigt intresserad av ett möte mot Masvidal just på grund av all den uppmärksamhet som Masvidal skulle bära med sig.
He’s got a lot of hype right now, and he’s been in this sport for a long, long time. But at the end of the day, does it really matter that you have all that hype if you never get to the pinnacle of the sport? I like the fact that that he has all this hype. It brings a lot of eyes. So if he does make it to me and that fight is made, I would actually be very, very interested in that.
UFC 245 kommer att äga rum den 14:e december på T-Mobile Arena i Las Vegas, USA.
