Jorge Masvidal open to Khabib Nurmagomedov fight at lightweight if price is right: ‘The moolah’s gonna talk’

Jorge Masvidal | Esther Lin, MMA Fighting

Jorge Masvidal has his eyes on the welterweight prize. After that, he’s going to keep following the money.

Before his stunning rise through the 170-pound ranks, Masvidal compiled an impressive resume competing primarily at 155 pounds, defeating the likes of Joe Lauzon, Yves Edwards, and K.J. Noons, in the early stages of his career before making his way to the UFC and adding Tim Means, Michael Chiesa, and James Krause to his resume.

It’s this past success that likely prompted a fan to ask if the “BMF” champion has any plans to return to the division for a superfight with UFC lightweight champion Khabib Nurmagomedov after potentially settling his business with welterweight champion Kamaru Usman. Masvidal shared his response on YouTube.

“The moolah’s gonna talk, man,” Masvidal said. “155 is such a battle with my weight. Once I’m at around 172 to 173 pounds, I’m at around five percent body fat already, six percent body fat. So I just don’t have a lot of room to play with and still get to 155. It’s a lot of water, it’s always been a lot of water. That doesn’t leave me the night of the fight in the best shape that I could possibly be, like how I compete at 170 and have that explosion, I can explode a little bit more and for longer. At ‘55 it would be a little different.”

Masvidal went on to say that as difficult as the cut to 155 pounds is, he would relish the opportunity to fight a big-name opponent in one of MMA’s most stacked divisions. Competing as a lightweight in the UFC, “Gamebred” holds a 5-2 record. He last fought at that weight back in April 2015.

“But that’s not to say I couldn’t win one and that I couldn’t make the weight,” Masvidal said. I would just have to be rewarded so motherf*cking handsomely for me to drop down to ‘55 and compete with anybody.

“I would love to do it because I felt I never got my fair due shot at 155. I beat a lot of top class competitors before I came to the UFC at 155. They never gave me a shot to fight a top-10 guy. It wasn’t until I started fighting at 170 they gave me top-5 and top-10 guys. I never got I felt my fair due shot at ‘55. I beat a lot of good guys when I was down there, in the UFC as well.”

The possibility of becoming a two-division UFC champion—if Masvidal were to defeat both Usman and Nurmagomedov—and the first fighter to defeat Nurmagomedov are undoubtedly tantalizing propositions for Masvidal, but in the end nothing would get him locked in that sauna faster than the right amount of zeros on his paycheck.

“So whatever, if they were to cough up that money I’d be in a hurry to get down there and show what I’m worth,” Masvidal said.