Jorge Masvidal feels he has what it takes to defeat Kamaru Usman now.
Masvidal stepped in on six days’ notice to challenge Usman for the welterweight title in the UFC 251 headliner last night.
Despite a promising start, “Gamebred” was ultimately dominated by Usman over the remaining rounds, who used his wrestling and clinch work to great but uneventful effect. In the end, “the Nigerian Nightmare” earned a unanimous decision victory to defend his title for the second time.
Masvidal didn’t make excuses for the defeat afterwards, but certainly feels he proved a point especially when it came to his wrestling.
“I hate coming up short,” Masvidal said at the post-fight press conference. “I’m not going to make no excuses, he was the better man tonight. There were some areas where I didn’t give him enough credit and there were some areas where I felt with a better training camp, I could definitely surpass him.
“I think I showed a lot of my wrestling on six days notice. I’m too easy to take down or hold down on the ground. … He won fair and square. I’ll do whatever it takes to get back in front of that man and compete again and get my hand raised.”
Masvidal Has A ‘Good Formula’ On Beating Usman
While every fighter will naturally believe they have a better chance in a rematch, Masvidal is even more confident he has what it takes to beat Usman.
Especially after going 25 minutes with him on short notice.
“… I got a good formula in my head, though, on how to beat him the next time,” he added. “I thought I had the formula, now I know the formula. It takes a lot of gas tank, a lot of conditioning, a lot of more wrestling rounds with high level guys. So I definitely got a square root on how to beat this guy.”
For now, Masvidal has to recover and get a win before he can hope to face Usman again.
