Jorge Masvidal Shifting Focus From Conor McGregor To Kamaru Usman

Jorge Masvidal has stated that he’s “moving on” from focusing on Conor McGregor and is instead making welterweight champion Kamaru Usman his No.1 target for his next Octagon outing.

“[McGregor] don’t want the fight so I don’t give a f*ck no more,” Masvidal told ESPN’s Ariel Helwani. “I’m moving on from that fight. This dude didn’t want the fight. I’m not here to bully. I guess it’s Usman’s head. He sealed Usman’s fate now.”

Masvidal went on to say that there’s more bad blood between him and Usman anyway, and with the belt being on the line it’s a fight that makes a lot of sense.

“I make a considerably larger paycheck with Conor but if it’s on the personal side, if it’s all potatoes and tomatoes being the same, I would take a lot more pleasure in dismantling Usman’s face than I would Conor’s. I would have a sincere joy inside of me like a kid on Christmas opening numerous gifts if Usman was the dude that I got to baptize.

“There is something about his face. I don’t like it, it doesn’t sit well with me. I don’t like his attitude either. These little comments of ‘who?’ I have been doing this 16 f*cking years. I’m the fighter of the year, and I’m at your f*cking weight class and you’re going to be as corny and a petty-ass troll and say ‘who?’

“The dude ain’t go no personality. He has 17 different f*cking personalities but not one of them is made for TV. So I want to f*ck his ass up.”

Nevertheless, it’s clear that Masvidal would still like to fight McGregor if the opportunity came his way, and with Usman likely to still be out of action until midway through the year, ‘Gamebred’ likes the sound of an interim title fight between the two of them.

“That’d be good too, if Conor wanted to do that,” Masvidal admitted. “One of these two guys is gonna have to scrap with me. I’m leaning right now towards Usman, the way he’s been talking, the sh*t he’s been saying, but if Conor wants it, we’ll get it done. It won’t be hard to get it done but I’m not going to sit here and entertain bullsh*t and stuff, you know? I just want to scrap.”

Ross launched MMA Insight (previously FightOfTheNight.com) in 2009 as a way to channel his passion for the sport of mixed martial arts. He's since penned countless news stories and live fight reports along with dozens of feature articles as the lead writer for the site, reaching millions of fans in the process.