Jorge Masvidal is not interested in putting his BMF title on the line against Michael Chandler — especially since “Gamebred” has his sights set on the UFC welterweight championship.
Chandler called Masvidal out for a fan-friendly bout for Masvidal’s BMF title in recent interviews — including on The MMA Hour — following the former Bellator lightweight champion’s third-round submission loss to Dustin Poirier in a wild fight at UFC 281.
Masvidal, who is preparing for his MMA promotion’s next event iKON FC 6 this Friday night just outside of Orlando, Fla., responded to Chandler’s challenge.
“Michael Chandler’s a quitter, man,” Masvidal told MMA Fighting. “That’s like the first thing to being a BMF. I saw him fight my boy Will Brooks, and Will Brooks hit that motherf***** so hard he just quit in the middle of the [fight]. He turned back, shook his head and was like, ‘Nah, I’m done fighting.’
“BMF my ass. That’s the first rule of being a BMF — you can’t be a quitter. You might lose, but you can’t give up on yourself. You can’t quit. That conversation for the BMF belt? No, it ain’t happening. C’mon Chandler: I know you don’t have a good perception of the world, but that’s not happening.”
Masvidal is hoping to return to the octagon in “March or April,” preferably on the same card featuring the trilogy fight for the welterweight championship between Leon Edwards and Kamaru Usman. The 38-year-old is hoping to turn things around and make another run at a title shot after dropping his last three bouts — two to Usman, and to Colby Covington in his lone appearance in 2022 at UFC 272 in March.
While a lot of fans would be intrigued about a fight between two powerful and durable strikers, Masvidal just doesn’t think the juice would be worth the squeeze.
“That fight doesn’t do anything for me in the 170 pound rankings, or [getting to] the belt,” Masvidal said. “If he comes up to the weight class and I hit up with a jab, and he turns into dust — he disintegrates, like one of those old statues that disintegrates to dust — you know what people are going to say? They’ll say, ‘Yeah, you’re supposed [to do that].’
“But let it be a little bit of a fight, or anything like that. I don’t see any risk-reward with this fight. Me killing this guy doesn’t do anything for me, or my career, so I really don’t care about it. He’s not really a pay-per-view seller either. I’m not saying I won’t entertain it in the future, but to actually say there will be a whole event [built around] it, or whatever he’s plotting in his head? Nah, probably not, bro.”
In Masvidal’s mind, if there’s one fighter in the lightweight division who could stake a claim for the BMF title, it would be the man who just defeated Chandler.
“You know who is a BMF? Dustin, but I ain’t going to fight Dustin because that’s my boy,” Masvidal explained. “Dustin never quits. Dustin gives all he’s f****** got to take motherf****** out.
“He took Chandler’s best and said, ‘What?’ Pop! That’s a BMF. There’s a lot of BMF’s in this sport, but Chandler ain’t on of them. You can’t be quitting in fights. You can’t be quitting in the middle of a fight. Automatically disqualified. Sorry, Chandler.”