We might not get Kamaru Usman vs. Jorge Masvidal after all.
Earlier this year, Dana White himself confirmed that a UFC Welterweight Championship match between the two fighters was set to take place in July at UFC 252; however, the respective bout has been in question due to the welterweights themselves.
Usman and Masvidal haven’t officially signed on the dotted line, but the fighters have been going back-and-forth and even came extremely close to a physical altercation back in January at the Super Bowl Radio Row. Despite all that heated build up between the welterweights, Masvidal may not square off against Usman due to Dana White telling ESPN that he has an “interesting” match-up for “Gamebred”:
“We’re talking about a few different things,” White said. “We have something else interesting for Masvidal, too, that we were just talking about (Thursday). We’ll see.”
The UFC President doesn't indicate who Masvidal could be fighting next as White is still trying to figure out booking in the midst of the coronavirus pandemic:
“We’ll see how this whole thing plays out – locations and how fast,” White said. “To start speculating down the road right now is too soon. Let’s get by these three fights in Florida and we’ll figure out what’s next. We’re talking about different possibilities with those guys.”
Thus far, neither Usman or Masvidal have addressed Dana White’s recent comments. Masvidal has indicated in the past that he would be interested in fighting Conor McGregor, who’s currently without an opponent since Khabib Nurmagomedov will fight either Justin Gaethje or Tony Ferguson in the fall. The former two-division champ himself has expressed interest in facing Masvidal as well. This is pure speculation as there’s been no confirmation from Dana White that these two could possibly face one another in the future.