Jorge Masvidal is still not over his KO loss to Kamaru Usman.
At UFC 261 in Jacksonville, Florida, Masvidal and Usman were running it back for the welterweight title after Usman won a decision on Fight Island in a scrap ‘Gamebred’ took on less than a week’s notice. In the rematch, Masvidal was vocal in saying Usman didn’t hit hard and knew if he made it stay standing he would get his hand raised, but that wasn’t the case.
Instead, Usman was landing the better shots and eventually scored a second-round KO as he put Masvidal out. It was the first time ‘Gamebred’ has been unconscious by strikes, which he says he is still not over.
“I took off eight to nine months, maybe even longer,” Masvidal said on the Joe Rogan Experience. “It was the first KO of my career, you know. They wanted to make sure my mind was right…
“I still haven’t got over it, brother. I still want to f*****g rip Usman’s f*****g brains out. Nothing personal, I still want to get back in there and do it to him. I’ve never been knocked out, and I’ve fought a lot. I’ve fought great strikers and they never even came close to knocking me out,” Masvidal added. “Usman is a great fighter, he can do a lot of things well. But, after fighting him the first time and getting his best shots in, I cut 20lbs of water and I took the fight on six days’ notice and I went to Abu Dhabi. I was like this guy will never hurt me. He hits like a b***h and this is the dude that knocks me out. And, I had five rounds with him. I think it was nine months since the first fight that he gained that kind of power. That was nuts to me. It was like unreal, unnatural.”
When asked if he thought he got knocked out because had didn’t respect Kamaru Usman’s power in the rematch, he said that wasn’t the case. Instead, Jorge Masvidal says he made a mistake as when Usman threw that KO punch, ‘Gamebred’ thought Usman was going to shoot for a takedown and dropped his hands.
“I always respect anybody who has two hands and two feet, it’s not like I’m doing the touch me in the chin and I’ll give a shot to take a shot,” Masvidal said. “It definitely caught me by surprise. When he started to load up, I kind of saw the back of his head so I thought for sure he is going to shoot so I started to drop my hands and midway I noticed it was a right hand. I tried to check-hook him. but it’s too late the right hand already penetrated the forcefield and took my ass out.”
Although the KO loss was nearly two years ago, Masvidal says he is still not over it. But, as he is set to take on Gilbert Burns at UFC 287, the hope for ‘Gamebred’ is to get that fight back as he knows he can beat Usman, but whether or not he will get the chance is uncertain.
