Jorge Masvidal says that if he is granted his wish of fighting Conor McGregor at the White House, he intends to seize the opportunity with both hands.
It had been widely speculated that former two-division UFC champion McGregor (22-6 MMA, 10-4 UFC) was being lined up to finally face Michael Chandler (23-10 MMA, 2-5 UFC) when the UFC hosts a gala event at the White House in June. However, Dana White recently revealed in an interview that he and his matchmaking team are no longer interested in pursuing that matchup.
In recent days, former three-time welterweight title challenger Masvidal (35-17 MMA, 12-10 UFC) has been vocal about his desire to face “The Notorious” at the event, and “Gamebred” has promised that if he is given the opportunity to meet the Irishman in Washington, it will be a fight to remember.
“I'm gonna beat the f***ing dog sh** out of him,” Masvidal told Ariel Helwani on Monday. “Straight up stand-up style. None of that grappling. I'm just going to get in your face, knee your ribs, elbow your fucking face. It's going to be a fight, man.”
McGregor and Chandler appeared as opposing coaches on season 32 of The Ultimate Fighter in 2023 and had been due to fight after the show ceased filming. After almost a year of speculation, they were eventually booked to face each other at UFC 303 in mid-2024, before McGregor pulled out of the fight at short notice due to a toe injury.
The pair have continued to tease the idea of eventually facing each other since then, but Masvidal isn’t sure if the bout was ever close to being realized.
“I mean, Chandler's a big name in the sport,” Masvidal said. “He's a huge name, so I don't know. I don't know how close it was to begin with, to being on the White House card, if that was all speculation from the start, or at one point the UFC did want that fight. I don't know. I don't know all these things.
“I know that (the UFC) have a very in-depth team. They have a guy that counts comments when somebody gets a picture. They have another guy that's looking at just the algorithm. They're having an in-depth team of who's going to make the most, the biggest noise possible. And I'm sure they're running (everything) through a team. They're going to decide, you know.”
