After 52 fights, Jorge Masvidal is finally stepping away from the fight game.
‘I Still Would’ve Retired’
‘Gamebred’ retired at UFC 287 after losing to Gilbert Burns in his hometown of Miami. It wasn’t so much of a surprise since Masvidal teased the decision days before the fight took place, suggesting a loss could lead to his last dance.
However, Masvidal now says he would’ve retired regardless of the result.
“I actually did better now [in this fight camp] than I’ve done most of my career. So in like some aspects, my physical was pretty damn good. There’s no excuses, if I lose this fight or I don’t perform the way I want to in this fight, it’s just not the same me,” Masvidal said on The MMA Hour. “There was times I felt like I could have done way more when I did hurt Gilbert and I did catch him and sparked that boom, boom, boom, that next level, that next shift in gear wasn’t there.
“Let’s say, I would’ve got the story ending that Miami deserves and f*cking clipped this guy and put his ass to sleep with 10 seconds to go [in round 3], I still would’ve retired. I still would’ve been like, ‘thank you everybody for the victory, this is not like me at my best’.”
Masvidal continued.
“I could be a sore loser like that cause it’s been 20 years. Sounds like I’m a sore loser, but it’s 20 years, I don’t feel like it. I don’t have that, ‘oh shit, okay, I dodged these three punches and like nothing happened’. No, it’s like, I’m thinking way too much. When I fire back, they’re not there no more. The standstill pictures ain’t as sharp as it used to be.”
‘I Would Say No To All Of It’
We’ve seen UFC legends like Jose Aldo and Anderson Silva retire from MMA and continue their careers in other combat sports such as boxing. But for the ‘BMF’, it looks like he won’t be exploring those options following his MMA retirement— at least not right now.
“I’ll X out bare-knuckle [boxing] just because of my hands,” Masvidal said, when asked about fighting again. “Your boy has 20 years in the fight game. My hands have been through everything you can imagine. There’s times after fights that, it’s like the hands are bad with gloves and casts and all that. So I personally couldn’t do that.
I wouldn’t do MMA obviously, and I always wanted to do boxing fights, but as of right now, I would say no to all of it.”
Never Say Never
While Masvidal isn’t interested in fighting again at the moment, he might just entertain it in the future.
“I don’t know, 2-3 years from now. I don’t know. It also depends on the type of shape that I’m in and everything. Everything will be like very, very calculated, especially from this point going forward. But I’m not gonna say no to it.
“If something crazy came about, yeah I would entertain it. Obviously first and foremost I’d have to get the UFC’s permission. They’d have to be the ones that to grace me, me with that, because I’m still under contract with the UFC.”
