Jorge Masvidal had a blast at the “Canelo” fight on Saturday night. Not only did he get to enjoy a one sided drubbing from “Canelo” Alvarez delivered unto Avni Yildirim, he ended up interviewing Alvarez after the fight.
After that interview he spoke with IFL TV about Alvarez’s performance.
“I love to see the disparity, the great vast difference between the number one and everybody else,” Masvidal said. “Truly, Canelo is the pound for pound guy right now. Offense is looking insane. The defense looks great. And the way he’s getting his timing and distance? Ridiculous. I knew it was going to be a blowout, but I didn’t think it was going to be like that.
“After round one he was just pot shotting him to death. It was just interesting to see what he can do to a number one contender so easily. Brings up the question: who can challenge this dude at 165 pounds? Because I truly feel it’s his weight right here. I don’t see nobody at 165.”
The interviewer took that opportunity to suggest Masvidal as a challenger.
“Definitely a dream,” Jorge replied. “My first love is boxing and I still love it to this day. If a champion in MMA can come over and challenge a champion in boxing? For me, it’s more than a dream, it’s a fulfilment. I first fell in love with boxing before UFC, started boxing before I even saw the UFC, so it’d be just full circle amazingness.”
As for how he’d fare against Alvarez?
“He’s one hell of a boxer, my brother,” he replied. “Chances are limited, but I’m a dog in every fight I’m in.”
In another interview given that night, Masvidal revealed the UFC is targeting September for a rematch against welterweight champion Kamaru Usman.
“[The Usman fight] is what I’m worried about now,” he said. “Whatever the future holds … I can get into boxing. I love boxing and boxing gives out the big paychecks. Boxing pays more for the pay-per-views we’re bringing in than my current sport. So would I love to be in boxing? No brainer. Yes. When the time comes we’ll cross that bridge, get the right opponents.”
“But I’m here as a fan, I wasn’t here to call out Canelo or anything like that, I love what he does out there, I love boxing. It’s simple, you know?”
And of course, because no boxing article would be complete without someone bringing up Jake Paul vs. Ben Askren, here’s Jorge’s prediction on that.
“Straight boxing, I gotta go with Jake,” Jorge said. “I just don’t think Ben has the hands. I love my MMA brothers and sisters but I don’t see Ben pulling this one off.”