MMA News: Jorge Masvidal ‘Flirted’ With UFC Return at 2 Massive Events, Plots Next Move
Jorge Masvidal is putting the gloves back on.
Whether it's boxing or MMA, the UFC veteran has the itch to fight again and you better believe he's going to scratch it. Masvidal initially announced his retirement less than a year ago at UFC 287 after a decision loss to top contender Gilbert Burns.
It's not 'game over' for 'Gamebred' anymore as the fighter claimed in January that he was coming out of retirement for another fight.
When and where that will be, remains a question. Masvidal was in discussions with the UFC for a potential comeback story at their upcoming pay-per-view events.
"There's some flirting, definitely," Masvidal said of potentially fighting at UFC 300 on 'The MMA Hour'. There's a lot of flirting. There was a lot of this and that, for the Miami card as well. How you're gonna go to Miami and not have your boy on there, right? That's a common thought.
"But there was a little bit of talk for it. It just, nothing materialized."
UFC 299 and UFC 300 will do just fine without Masvidal as the cards are mostly stacked from top to bottom. Though, another Miami homecoming for the Cuban or a BMF 'title unification' vs. Justin Gaethje would've made for great box office.
The inaugural BMF Champion explains why he's on the bench instead of fighting on those monumental cards.
"Big part of me was definitely interested, but I already had kinda [plans] like I wanna do boxing, man," Masvidal detailed. "I've been doing MMA for 20 years. I kinda just wanna box and just have fun doing something else, something different. Still, MMA is my number one sport, my number one activity to do.
"But, yeah, I opted the the boxing route for now."
As for his future in boxing, Masvidal wants to enter the ring with rival star Nate Diaz. The two headlined UFC 244 back in Nov. 2019, where Masvidal ultimately won the BMF belt with a doctor stoppage TKO over Diaz.
"There's no deal in place, but I would love to fight this motherf****** in a boxing match. Obviously, I would have loved to have done it in MMA. And, uh, you know, when he was free and I was free, he just wasn't working out. I was competing against [Kamaru] Usman for the title during that time that he was still with the UFC.
"Shortly after that... he ended up finishing out his contract. So, we didn't get to make that happen. Now the UFC is so gracious, and we showed a great deal. They're gonna let me box for a couple of matches. Nate could be one of them, hopefully. I would love to do it. We got unfinished business."
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