Jorge Masvidal has revealed he turned down a chance to fight welterweight champion Kamaru Usman at UFC 249 on April 18th after failing to come to terms with the promotion over the financial aspects of the deal.
“There was a deal on the table, but when the full deal and the whole extent of it got brought through and how it was going to play out, the budget really wasn’t there in a way for what we were asking,” Masvidal told BTSport. “The price tag that I put out there, they didn’t wanna pay. This other guy, who knows if he was in or not, but my price wasn’t met. And for the risk-to-reward factor, I wanted to get compensated and the compensation wasn’t really there.”
However, Masvidal did indicate that the differences he has with the UFC over his pay cheque could be resolved and he still expects to fight Usman next.
“We weren’t too far off either, we can make it work in the future for a fact. I think in July, I’ll be beheading this guy for the whole world to see.”
Of course there’s no guarantee that events will be back up and running by July after Dana White revealed yesterday that the UFC’s fight schedule is essentially postponed indefinitely now due to coronavirus, but this does seem like the kind of blockbuster title fight that they will want to move forward with sooner rather than later once things do get back to something like normality.
