Getty Colby Covington & Jorge Masvidal
Two-time UFC title challenger Jorge Masvidal wants a third shot at earning UFC gold by dethroning Leon Edwards, and Joe Rogan gave his take on “Gamebred’s” campaign.
Edwards became the undisputed 170-pound king last month at UFC 278 when he landed a last-minute head kick on then-champion Kamaru Usman. He knocked out “The Nigerian Nightmare” cold, avenging his 2015 loss to Usman and becoming the second-ever English UFC champion.
After the bout, Masvidal started calling for a fight with Edwards. The two have a volatile history which includes a backstage altercation in 2019 when Masvidal punched “Rocky” multiple times.
Around two weeks after Usman’s title reign was ended, the former champion appeared on episode No. 128 of the “JRE MMA Show” with Rogan. And during their two-and-a-half-hour conversation, they spoke about Masvidal wanting to battle Edwards next.
“Gamebred” is currently on an 0-3 skid, which includes back-to-back defeats to Usman for the welterweight belt, as well as his most recent defeat to Colby Covington in March at UFC 272.
Usman & Rogan Weigh In on the Potential Edwards vs. Masvidal Grudge Match
And in short, Usman doesn’t think it “makes sense” for the promotion to book Masvidal in another title fight right now.
“Him and Masvidal were going back and forth, and I think that’s a great fight,” Usman said about Masvidal versus Gilbert Burns (h/t MMA News). “I don’t know for sure, because I’m hearing all week that Masvidal is wanting that fight with Leon Edwards for the title. Like that doesn’t really make any sense.”
Rogan also chimed in with his take, saying: “If I was Leon, I would be like ‘Where have you been?’ You punched me in the face four or five years ago, and I didn’t hear s*** from you.”
UFC president Dana White has made it clear that the organization will pursue a trilogy bout between Edwards and Usman next, with it potentially taking place in England.
Belal Muhammad Thinks Edwards Will Look to Fight Masvidal Next
Speaking recently on MMA Fighting’s “The Fighter vs. The Writer,” top-ranked UFC welterweight Belal Muhammad said he didn’t think Edwards would want to fight Usman next. Instead, Muhammad said he saw Edwards wanting to settle his “unfinished business” with Masvidal.
“His first title defense, I think he’s going to try and push a [Jorge] Masvidal narrative of, ‘We’ve got unfinished business with Masvidal, three piece and a soda, I need to get that one back.’” Muhammad said. “He’s going to try to create that narrative, and if you’re the UFC, you’re like, ‘Masvidal is the biggest star in the UFC next to [Conor] McGregor, so there’s the story, let’s try to do that Leon vs. Masvidal fight in London or something like that,’ because they know it will sell pay-per-views and for them. It’s all about money.
“The UFC wanted that big fight with Kamaru and Khamzat [Chimaev] because Kamaru had that untouchableness to him and Khamzat has that untouchableness to him and they just lost that. So I feel like they’re going to try to substitute that with the bad blood between Masvidal and Leon. I just have that bad feeling.”