Issue 184

November 2019

His spectacular and swift KO of Ben Askren made Jorge Masvidal a hot property for the UFC. But it's been a long journey to the top for the man who has fought his way up from the streets of South Florida.

For the perfect combination in laissez-faire, swag, and simply believing in yourself, read Jorge Masvidal, or certainly the life and times of 'Game Bred' the fighter. In an exclusive interview for Fighters Only, one of the hottest commodities in the Ultimate Fighting Championship right now revealed that fights with Conor McGregor and Nate Diaz – not to mention "cashing checks" and a stab at the title – are the life events that motivate his soul (and bank balance), that heading for a coffee ('cafesito') in Little Havana or his local area of Miami these days often turns into a one-hour signing and selfie session, and, modest as he remains, there is a blunt refusal to describe himself as a hero, in spite of his massive popularity. Instead, he told me this: "I’m no hero, never have been. I’m a local goon that took a hated man's soul."

For Masvidal, winning belts and pleasing the fans "is the same thing".

If you were to pick a handful of real-life street fighters who have become professional prize-fighters, the man from Miami-Dade County fits the mould to perfection. Moreover, he has kept at the game through thin and thinner, his storied career having initially begun badly while of late as he has become one of the most revered and fighters on earth, and one of the most resonant names on the lips of fans.

Right now, Masvidal is hot property. And no wonder. The resume he has amassed is unmistakably long and broad, yet 2019 has defined his time in mixed martial arts with an acute arc. The 34-year-old has gone toe-to-toe with rising contenders, champions and ex-champions plus every conceivable style in his 47 fights (49 if you count his single forays into boxing and kick-boxing) which includes – through periods in Bellator, Strikeforce, and the UFC – Yves Edwards, Joe Lauzon, Paul Daley, KJ Noons, Gilbert Melendez, Al Iaquinta, Benson Henderson, Cezar Ferreira, Lorenz Larkin, Donald Cerrone, Demian Maia and Stephen Thompson, to name just a few. But you could go on. There are wins and losses along the way there, but look through them and recall the fights: elite level opponents everywhere, Masvidal having graduated from the bottom upwards in such a manner with such longevity due to his developing skills, huge fighting IQ and the thing for which he is probably most respected and loved – those street smarts. 

This year has been even more significant because of the victories – let's call them triumphs or show-stoppers even – four months apart over Darren Till in London, and Ben Askren in Las Vegas. 

The silencing of the London crowd at the O2 Arena in March when knocking out Till was emphatic; and then the delivery of the sprinting, flying knee in Sin City to pull off the fastest KO in UFC history in five seconds against Askren elevated the American Top Team fighter to both championship level fights, and perhaps the biggest pay-off, pay-per-view status. Of that, there is now no question, not when Masvidal is being mentioned in the same breath as McGregor, Diaz and the current welterweight champion Kamaru Usman.  

We ought to recall that Till – in spite of his defeat to Tyron Woodley – was still regarded as the British golden boy for the UFC, and it was an undefeated Askren that Masvidal faced at UFC 239. The second of those victories came on the main card, indeed, close to the fanfare surrounding Amanda Nunes – in the same week she was awarded three gongs at the Fighters Only World MMA Awards – and the imperious yet enigmatic Jon Jones. In short, Masvidal could not have picked a better moment to announce himself as a crossover star with the fans.

But look at the fine print, and there is no luck involved here. Truth is, Masvidal had rubber-stamped his plan for Askren in training camp and indeed, had been prepping that flying knee in the dressing room in the bowels of the T-Mobile Arena. It showed such adroitness, fleetness of thought, and a devilish cunning. It was an attack of pinpoint accuracy, a thing of beauty.

No one had ever ended a UFC fight as quickly as 'Game Bred' and with it, the Florida native earned his place in history – and in the welterweight title picture. I was there in Las Vegas on the night, and Masvidal's practiced feat against Askren was no thing of myth. Larry X (we shall call him, one of the security guards there on the night) was sitting just in front of me as we watched the arena erupt. The security man turned to me seconds after the knockout explaining that he had been there in the dressing room. "He must have been practising that for 25 minutes before coming out here," he proclaimed.

Videos later emerged, of course, with the winning fighter going over the move in his training camp, ahead of International Fight Week in Las Vegas. It was simplicity itself. Emblematic, arguably, of the way Masvidal lives and carries himself.

Askren, regarded as a mixed martial arts fighter who uses a blanket to smother opponents, had the canvas ripped from under him by an audacious – and perfectly timed – leap, like something out of a jungle attack. It was perfectly accentuated by its angle and flight. Knee bone to the jawbone. Masvidal has been categoric in his analysis since, as well. He had always seen Askren as a simple fight for him.

"I told the UFC officials I’m so happy you gave me an easy fight," Masvidal explained a few weeks later. "They were like ‘No, Ben’s the real deal’ and I go ‘OK, we’ve got different opinions, whatever, we’ll shortly find out’. I showed it. We’re not in the same league by any means at all.

“Every time me and that guy are going to fight, he’s going to have to close the distance. It’s going to be similar outcome every time. Not that it’s going to be a flying knee every time but I’ve got different weapons that I’ve got prepared for him. Embrace the shot and try to take me down, it’s not going to happen. You’ve got to be slightly more sophisticated.”

That's his fight intelligence, right there. Warrior, survivor, and right down to every letter – 'Game Bred'. Exactly that. But it was to get even better for Masvidal. Just over a month later, in August, the return of Nate Diaz to the Octagon after three years away would cast the spotlight on our Miami man once more. The manner of the Diaz victory over Anthony Pettis – with Masvidal present in the plush seats in Anaheim, California – saw the two fighters pitched against each other by dint of Nate's post-fight callout, and some smart camera work by the broadcasters highlighting Masvidal nodding and loving it. Both are up for it, and indeed, the respect goes both ways. Masvidal admits to an admiration for Diaz. 

“Let’s see how the UFC plays it. Are they going to play hardball, or are they going to give into what the fans fucking want? If the fight doesn’t get made it isn’t because I don’t want it or Nate doesn’t want it," says Masvidal. "Who doesn’t want to see these two dogs get locked in the cage and go? Which one is more dog at the end of the day? Let’s find out. The fight speaks for itself."

Masvidal also reckons that Diaz "beat Conor McGregor in the second one, too, so he’s got two wins on Conor". He would not mind a W over McGregor himself. Bottom line, there is no cloak hiding the real Masvidal. What you see is what you get. Straight-talking, chilled out at the best of times, yet ready for war. So much of that is down to his upbringing, and in his heritage. Arguably in the struggle. 

How does it feel, for him, for example, to have worked 16 years in the professional game and now finally be loved as a star?

"It’s nice to see me being appreciated. I been at this for a long time and to see it come together feels good," Masvidal explained, as we discuss how his success has been received at home. "The big change is that going to get a cafesito (the Cuban term for cup of coffee) turns into a 45-minute affair. Once one of the ladies recognizes me, I get stuck taking pictures and autographs for the whole spot. But I’m no hero, never have been. I’m a local goon that took a hated man's soul." There's Masvidal right there, the Masvidal fans and fighters have come to love and respect.

Truth is, until recently, he might have been seen as a great match-up for other rising stars. But that has clearly changed, and now Masvidal carries the proverbial machete in promotional terms, with Ibrahim Kawa building his fighter's natural, gangster, subversive, brand. 

Born and raised in Miami-Dade County to a Cuban father and a Peruvian mother, the story of the journey to the United States on his paternal side is fascinating. His father, unhappy with the communist regime there, left Cuba as a teenager on a raft constructed of tractor tires, with a friend and that friend's uncle undertaking a perilous journey, ending up at the Virgin Islands. "Yeah, that's right," Masvidal concurs. "He was at sea for five days and had to bite the head off a bird to get fluid to survive. Wild story." 

Masvidal Sr, then 14, had been on the raft when their gallon drum with drinking water in it had been flooded with seawater. The bird had appeared more than once, and when it came back, his old man read it as a sign. Survival. He drank the blood and ate the raw meat, according to the fighter. 

"I was like, Wow, that’s fuckin’ survival," Masvidal has said of his father's journey, and from his account, the old man had a chaotic life, growing up in African-American neighborhoods, was involved in drugs and a very tough life. He served five years in jail for manslaughter in California, then eighteen years in Florida for drug-trafficking. Life is different now, and Masvidal Sr always comes to his son's mixed martial arts fights. 

Growing up in Miami, Masvidal was happy, a kid who enjoyed the outdoors in an area of apartment complexes. The kids rode bicycles and learnt how to look after themselves. Nowadays, the streets in the area are empty as youngsters stay close to home on their phones, involved in gaming and the like. Social media has taken the place of the kind of 'socializing' in the hood where Masvidal became a man as a teenager.

When he took to combat in the form of sport, it was wrestling and boxing that interested him. He began to progress in High School wrestling, but he was also becoming involved in street fighting, famously, of course, crossing paths with the late Kimbo Slice in the South Miami 'scene'.

"I knew him as Ferg," explained Masvidal. "He was always a nice guy and always looked out for anyone that needed help." Masvidal's involvement in that time has given him folklore status with MMA fans, after his fight with 'Ray', one of Slice's guys, garnered millions of views on YouTube. He was 19 then, but to what extent was his wrestling at St. Brendan High School as important as his street fighting in his progression into MMA? 

"Absolutely it was, but I never had the chance to actually wrestle for them because my grades were not good enough. So I just went to practice knowing I wanted to get better," he explained, noting it was a regret of his that he did not get the grades he needed to stay eligible to compete for the team. Yet he was being drawn towards MMA, the street-fighting simply accelerating his move forward. He began to train harder, hitting the gym, running up the stairs on an eleven-story parking lot, training on the rooftops and doing pads there under the blistering Miami heat. It was a place he used for many years – the Masvidal way, manufacturing a method of getting to where he needed to be.

Aged 20, on June 28, 2005, Masvidal made his professional boxing debut at middleweight, winning a four-rounder on his debut against Joseph Benjamin at the Radisson Mart Plaza Hotel in his home city. But MMA was already his driving force. He had had seven MMA fights by then. And the following month, he was out again in MMA, fighting in Fort Lauderdale. The next year he fought in Bodog, travelled to Japan for Sengoku four times, stepped into early Bellator bouts and then was signed by Scott Coker into Strikeforce. Still, though, some of his fights were on short notice, camps were haphazard. With Strikeforce, he fought at the Playboy Mansion in Beverley Hills in 2007, defeating Matt Lee by first-round TKO. 

How was that? Typically funny, he simply replied: "It’s exactly what you are thinking and what your readers are thinking as you asked that."

Was it overrated? "Not for me."

Masvidal progressed. By 2011, he was established, challenging for – and losing – in a bid for the Strikeforce lightweight title against Gilbert Melendez. The following year, when Strikeforce was bought out by the UFC, it brought a renewed vigor to Masvidal's appetite to be a bona fide professional fighting athlete. The rest is history. Seventeen fights and seven years later, Masvidal's value and brand is now enjoyed. Sixteen years to become an overnight sensation. But it does feel good. 

For the man himself, is it important to win belts or please the fans? 

"I think it goes hand and hand. If you are pleasing the fans you should be fighting for the belt. I just have competitiveness in me. Some people have it and some don’t. I’m the guy that hates losing." 

Fearless, true to himself, Masvidal also backs CBD use. One of his sponsors is CBDMD, brought into the sport by marketeer, Hans Molenkamp. It remains important in his recovery. Little surprise that Masvidal, like so many other fighters, prefers using CBD to painkillers. 

"I don’t use the liquid cad but I absolutely love the creams that actually work for joint and muscle stiffness," he explained. "It’s already huge in MMA. There shouldn’t be any restrictions on it."

He has a son and a daughter. Would he like to see them fight, as a father? "My son shows signs and he’s only 4. He’s 4 but I don’t want him to fight. We try gymnastics or baseball or wrestling or even golf but he just loves to fight. My daughter loves gymnastics and she did a little jiu-jitsu, but I don’t want her to fight and she doesn’t show any signs of wanting to."

For the man who "only presses the off button now in my fights" the future looks rich with promise. How exciting is a fight with Nate Diaz, apart from the obvious: the profile it will bring and arguably the major paydays that will sustain and nourish the lives of his family and children for decades? The prospect of the fight itself with Diaz clearly thrills the bones of our man. 

"It’s super exciting because I know he’s going to come forward and try to take my head off. That excites me as a competitor. May the best man win." 

And will Masvidal be calling out McGregor's name if he defeats Diaz? Does he feel McGregor has blown his legacy by leaving it so long to come back? 

"We'll see, but I think he would have to beg me at that point (after defeating Diaz)." It's a bold statement. "I called McGregor out for the money, everybody knows why I do this, and that’s really it. But I don’t think he tarnished his legacy by taking a long time out." 

Spoken like a fighter who has been through the mill, who understands the game. Nearly two decades deep into pitting body, mind and soul into the toughest sporting profession on earth. 

"Whoever has the belt," is now the wishlist for Game Bred, and his plan going forward with MMA – he signs off with this – is his hope to "cash checks". 

And why shouldn't Jorge Masvidal? Born and bred to fight, and always game, he has certainly earned it.