MMA Fantasy: What if Jorge Masvidal and Conor McGregor had fought for the BMF title?
Conor McGregor and Jorge Masvidal are two of the biggest pay-per-view superstars the UFC has ever produced. Both fighters have been part of some of the most memorable bouts in promotional history and boast tremendous fanfare.
Many McGregor fights are on the UFC's top 10 best-selling pay-per-view list and Masvidal's five-second flying knee KO over Ben Askren is perhaps the most memorable moment in all of MMA. This has led many to wonder how things would've turned out if these two superstars had fought for the BMF title at UFC 244. Let's make an educated guess.
The original BMF title matchup between 'Gamebred' and Nate Diaz took place in 2019 at the height of Masvidal's UFC superstardom. During that time, McGregor had been on a short hiatus from the sport following his loss to Khabib Nurmagomedov at UFC 229.
However, the Irishman would've had enough time to recover and recuperate from his October 2018 loss to 'The Eagle' at that point. Hence, the timeline would've made sense to pit him in the BMF matchup.
Moreover, given 'The Notorious's' star power and his legacy as a former two-division champion, pitching him against Masvidal for the BMF belt would've helped legitimize the title in the minds of fight fans.
Furthermore, both Masvidal and McGregor were in their relative primes in 2019, and given that both men are strikers who rarely resort to grappling on their own accord during fights, this bout would've been a high-octane slugfest.
The fact that the duo also shares a long history of trash talk against each other, would've also helped in making the press conference for the event a memorable one.
Catch Jorge Masvidal trash-talk Conor McGregor below:
The fight weight would have also not been a hindrance, since McGregor had already fought at 170 pounds, twice at this point in his UFC career. In short, the fantasy matchup had all the makings of a pay-per-view blockbuster.
Jorge Masvidal on why he never got to fight Conor McGregor
Jorge Masvidal believes he was never matched up with Conor McGregor because such a fight would've ended horribly for 'The Notorious's' stock.
During a recent interview with djvlad, 'Gamebred' argued that the Irishman would've been on the wrong end of a beat down if they ever fought in the octagon. The inaugural BMF champion is convinced that the 35-year-old is scared of him:
"Conor knows that I'm bad for his brand... I'm going to stand in front of him, and I'm going to beat the f**k out of him on the feet... Conor is at my weight class, he is fighting at 170... In actual terms of size, we could do it... It's just like I said. That little Irish b*tch is scared of me."
Catch Jorge Masvidal's comments on Conor McGregor below:
'The Notorious' is expected to make his MMA comeback in a welterweight bout against Michael Chandler at UFC 303. However, amid the cancellation of their June 3 press conference, many fans now suspect the fight to be in jeopardy.