At UFC 251, Jorge Masvidal failed to beat the reigning UFC Welterweight Champion Kamaru Usman. Going in, the Florida native had some nice momentum on his side as Masvidal had strong knockout victories over Darren Till, Ben Askren, and Nate Diaz.
However, Usman was entering the bout on the strength of a 16-fight winning streak, with some of those victories coming over top tier names such as Demian Maia, Rafael dos Anjos, Tyron Woodley, and Colby Covington. The 170-pound champion exemplified once again why he’s undefeated in the UFC as Usman controlled a good majority of the fight.
When the championship match was all said and done, there was little doubt that Kamaru Usman beat Jorge Masvidal for the prestigious title. Following his big match-up, Masvidal didn’t make any excuses over his loss to Usman and promises to do whatever it takes to get another shot for the UFC Welterweight title (Transcript courtesy of MMA Junkie):
“I hate coming up short,” Masvidal told reporters. “I ain’t going to make no excuses. He was the better man tonight. There was some areas where I didn’t give him enough credit and there was some areas I felt with a better training camp I could definitely surpass him. I think I showed a lot of my wrestling on six days’ notice that I’m not too easy to take down or hold down on the ground.
“I made a lot of mistakes. I tried to fight in spots where I didn’t think my gas tank was the greatest. Right when I would get loose he would clinch me up and take it right back into his world. So, I’m not going to take anything away from him. He won fair and square. I will do whatever it takes to get back in front of that man and compete again and get my hand raised.”
Masvidal indicates that he’ll return sometime later this year or early 2021, with the hopes of rebounding with a big win and a better performance overall:
“Definitely going to sit back and evaluate the next one,” Masvidal said. “I don’t know if I’ll be coming back at the end of the year or early next year. I’m going to sit down with my management and figure it out. But whoever it is next year I just want to come back and get a stoppage and be in peak shape, have a six-pack when I’m out there and just be right.”