UFC News: Jorge Masvidal Reveals 6-Figure Payday for UFC 251 Kamaru Usman Title Fight

"Gamebred" was happy to help the UFC out as long as he was compensated properly.

July 12, 2020; Abu Dhabi, UAE; Jorge Masvidal punches Kamaru Usman of Nigeria in their UFC / Handout Photo-USA TODAY Sports

Jorge Masvidal claims that the UFC paid him quite handsomely for a short-notice title fight with Kamaru Usman at UFC 251.

“Gamebred” announced his retirement from the UFC following a loss to Gilbert Burns at UFC 287 last year, but a three-fight run of victories over Darren Till, Ben Askren, and Nate Diaz in 2019 helped make him one of the promotion’s more marketable stars of the last few years.

That impressive winning streak encouraged the UFC to give Masvidal a call when Burns had to withdraw from UFC 251 in 2020, and the 39-year-old says the promotion made it worth his while to challenge then-welterweight king Usman on extremely short notice.

Masvidal went the distance with Usman in their first meeting at UFC 251. / Handout Photo-USA TODAY Sports

“There’s only one mother****er in the whole world that could get that call for the bat signal, and that’s this dude here,” Masvidal told Vlad TV. “But, I had to get paid. And I had to get paid very f***ing handsomely to do it. …That’s one of the fights that I made the most, because we ended up selling like right under 1.3 million PPVs. If I hadn’t struck that deal with the UFC, I wouldn’t have got nowhere near $5 million. I would have sold the same amount and got nowhere near $5 million.”

Masvidal lost a unanimous decision to Usman at UFC 251 before he was knocked out in their immediate rematch the following year. Still, those back-to-back welterweight title shots were part of a four-fight streak of PPV main events for “Gamebred” before he closed out his UFC career against Burns at UFC 287.

The 39-year-old’s first headlining slot on a UFC PPV was a fight for the inaugural “BMF” belt opposite Diaz at UFC 244, and the pair are now set to meet again on June 1 for Masvidal’s first professional boxing bout.

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Diaz closed out his own UFC career on a win after he submitted Tony Ferguson in the main event of UFC 279, and less than a year later, the 39-year-old stepped into the boxing ring for the first time and lost a unanimous decision to Jake Paul.

The card for Diaz and Masvidal’s boxing match on June 1 also features former UFC lightweight champion Anthony Pettis taking on UFC veteran Chris Avila, but as interested as many fans may be in watching that event, it will also be going head-to-head with UFC 302 on the same night.

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