Gegard Mousasi made an appearance on FOX Sports 1 show ‘UFC Tonight’ yesterday, which is somewhat surprising given that it sounds like his ongoing contract talks with the company don’t appear to be going particularly well.
“It’s not good,” Mousasi told Michael Bisping and Kenny Florian when asked about negotiations with the UFC over a new deal. “We don’t like it.”
Mousasi has six weeks left in an exclusive negotiating period with the UFC, at which point he’ll then become a free agent and be able to field offers from other organizations.
There’s likely to be no shortage of options at that stage given that Mousasi’s stock has never been higher, coming off five wins in a row at 185lbs, including victories over stars like Chris Weidman, Vitor Belfort, Thales Leites and Uriah Hall.
Therefore it would be in the UFC’s best interests to try to lock up a deal with Mousasi beforehand, but the 31-year-old veteran of 50 pro-fights (42-6-2) is determined to get paid what he’s worth this time around, noting that, “I’m co-main event all the time, so it’s not like people don’t know me.”
Mousasi is actually underselling himself there as in his 12 UFC fights to date he’s not only had co-main event spots on several PPV cards, but he’s also headlined five ‘UFC Fight Night’ shows as well.
For the record, if Mousasi is able to reach terms with the UFC, the current No.4 ranked contender in the division has indicated the fight he’s most interested in would be a mouth-watering match-up with former middleweight champion Luke Rockhold.
