“Street Jesus” saves the UFC and rips Usman
UFC Fight Island is now 5 days away. UFC championship triple headers are rare and now with the late notice replacement main event between Kamaru Usman and Jorge Masvidal, the event is now bigger than ever.
Reports over the weekend came out that the UFC was in search of an opponent for Kamaru Usman and negotiations were underway with Jorge “Gamebred” Masvidal aka “Street Jesus”. A deal was made contingent upon a negative COVID-19 test.
Today tests came back negative and the UFC officially announced the fight. Both fighters are now on their way to Abu Dhabi.
Image via UFC on Instagram
Jorge Masvidal went on ESPN to talk about the fight and how a deal was made over the weekend.
“We had to break them down,” Masvidal told ESPN when asked how his deal with the UFC came together on short notice. “That’s why some people don’t seem too happy that we’re announcing it, they didn’t want to talk about it too much. You can see it in their faces over their anger and anguish. I’m going to do my job always, which is to provide for me and my family, I’m not going to give a f**k what anybody says, this guy says, that guy says.
“I’ve been in this business a while. I know what I generate. We know what we generate. It’s a numbers game. The numbers are there. It’s not ‘I think I deserve this.’ No, I see on paper what I bring in. Me and my team know what I deserve.”
Masvidal has been publicly disputing with the UFC regarding pay for the past few weeks. When asked if he was happy with the deal that was made and the pay he would receive, Jorge answered with the following.
“I’m not asking for them to pay me something outrageous,” Masvidal explained. “No. I’m asking to give me more money of what I do bring in off the pay-per-view side and that’s what we were fighting for. We came to a pretty good deal so I’m happy right now.
“The initial deal with [Kamaru Usman] was a sh*t deal on the pay-per-view end and on the guarantee side, so I have two negatives. I could understand you don’t want to give me that much on the guaranteed [money]. But on the pay-per-view, what I bring in, what people purchase, I want more money than that and they weren’t budging, and that was that. So all this craziness had to happen for them to come to their senses.”
“Now I didn’t get exactly what I wanted but I got very, very close to it,” Masvidal said. “So I’m taking the fight. I’m happy more than anything cause I get to break this guy’s face and get paid for it. But one thing I’m not going to do, which I’ve done for a long part of my career is get underpaid. That’s not going to happen no more. Not from here going forward.
“Since I came back from Mexico after the [Darren] Till fight, me and my management sat down, we discussed the numbers where I needed to be at and we needed to hit those very quick. We’re not there yet but we’re headed in that direction. So moving forward after this fight, they’re going to treat me accordingly or I’ll just step in last minute, six days to go and get paid then I guess. I’m going to get paid every time out.”
The relationship between Jorge and the UFC has not always been the best. Jorge has publicly expressed his discontent with the UFC and some of its business practices. When asked if the relationship was mended, Jorge responded.
“They love me,” Masvidal said about the promotion. “I just saved their f**king asses. I’m literally their favorite person in the whole f**king world right now.”
Lastly, Jorge gave his prediction on the fight.
“Me baptizing his ass in front of the whole world,” Masvidal predicted. “Cold-blooded as can be. His body’s [gasping] for air as I got my hand raised over him.
“I’m going to baptize him for the world to see. It’s going to be violent. It’s going to start violent. It’s going to end violent.”
Masvidal posted a video as he was leaving Las Vegas.
Image via @gamebredfighter on Instagram
The stage is now set for these two fighters to meet at Fight Island. What are your thoughts on the main event bout between Jorge Masvidal and Kamaru Usman?
