Is former UFC fan favorite Jorge Masvidal gearing up for a boxing match with Nate Diaz? According to ex-Bellator MMA standout Josh Thomson, yes.
Over the last several weeks, rumors have run rampant suggesting that the UFC is preparing to bring ‘Gamebred’ back into the Octagon for a high-stakes scrap with either reigning welterweight world champion Leon Edwards or current BMF titleholder Justin Gaethje at the promotion’s next big milestone event on April 13.
Speaking about the possibility, or in this case the lack thereof, Josh Thomson dropped a bombshell, suggesting that Masvidal is slated for a boxing match with the ‘Stockton Samurai’ next month.
“There is no way in any avenue I can see this fight coming to fruition,’ Thomson began. “Whether it’s the Gaethje fight or the Leon fight. Not only because he’s coming off four losses, but I feel like he has scheduled a fight. If it doesn’t happen, it doesn’t happen, but from what I’m hearing, that fight is supposed to happen on February 28 against Nate Diaz in a boxing match.
“If that fight happens, the UFC’s not going to bank on their main event or co-main event against Jorge Masvidal knowing he fights two or three weeks before. If he gets cut, he gets hurt, he gets anything, now what do we do? We’re scrambling around. That’s not the UFC way. Not on the biggest card.”
Jake Paul claims Jorge Masvidal is going to box Nate Diaz in now deleted tweet 🤔👀 pic.twitter.com/jXKZAEXdvV
— Happy Punch (@HappyPunch) January 2, 2024
No official announcements have been made about the next Gamebred Boxing Event, but Masvidal did send MMA Twitter into a tizzy when he wrote one word on social media recently — “unretired.”
Thomson and McCarthy Say Sean O’Malley is ‘Not in the Same Catagory’ as Conor McGregor
Shifting gears, Thomson and his WEIGHING IN co-host, ‘Big’ John McCarthy, weighed in on Sean O’Malley’s recent suggestion that by the end of 2024, he will be as big as Conor McGregor. Needless to say, Thomson was very skeptical of that statement, though he does believe that ‘Sugar’ is a marketable fighter in his own right.
“No. He cannot be as big as Conor McGregor,” Thomsaid said without hesitation. “Conor came at a time in the sport and the UFC put him on track to be this fighter and he just blew up with the Floyd Mayweather situation that the UFC put him into and helped get him into. It just doesn’t happen.
“The one thing I will say and Ilia Topuria said the same thing, was that he hits a different market for the UFC. He hits the younger market. He hits the TikTok market. A lot of these fighters don’t mark that little checkbox. When advertising or marketing dollars come in, he does.”
Conor McGregor’s first time headlining a pay-per-view came in July 2015 at UFC 189. The Irishman met Chad Mendes in the evening’s main event which generated an estimated 825,000 PPV buys. O’Malley’s first time headlining an event, UFC 292 in August, generated a reported 350,000 buys.
That number has not yet been confirmed by the promotion, but recently, Aljamain Sterling, who met ‘Sugar’ in the summertime scrap, admitted that he was extremely disappointed in his bonus based on the final buy rate.
“Sean can talk all he wants about being right there with Conor McGregor. No son. You are not,” John McCarthy added. “You can sit there and try to be him and put yourself in a position to talk about how you are that guy and maybe you will be somewhere along the way. But with what Conor did, his numbers right away show that nope, you’re not in the same catagory as him.”
Watch the full episode below:
