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 is a quitter,” Masvidal said to MMA Fighting. “That’s like the first thing to being a BMF. He was fighting my son Will Brooks. Will Brooks hit the motherf ***** hard enough that he quit right in the middle [fight].. He turned back, shook his head and was like, ‘Nah, I’m done fighting.’
“BMF My Ass. This is the most important rule to follow when you are a BMF. You can’t quit. You might lose, but you can’t give up on yourself. You can’t quit. Is that the conversation for your BMF belt? It’s not 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 does not do any for me in either the 170 weight rankings or [getting to] my belt,” Masvidal stated. “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? You’ll hear them say: “Yeah you’re supposed
” Let it be just a bit of fight or something like that. This fight is not worth the risk. 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. While I don’t deny it will happen in the near future, I do not think it is impossible to imagine a complete event [built around] or any other plan he has in mind.
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.
” Do you know what a BMF is? Masvidal stated that Dustin is my son, and that he will not be fighting me. “Dustin never quits. Dustin gives all he’s f****** got to take motherf****** out.
“He took Chandler’s best and said, ‘What?’ Pop! It’s called a BMF. Although there are many BMFs within this sport, Chandler isn’t one of them. You can’t be quitting in fights. It is illegal to quit during a fight. You will be automatically disqualified. Sorry, Chandler.”
Source: https://www.mmafighting.com/2022/11/29/23482993/jorge-masvidal-responds-to-quitter-michael-chandlers-bmf-title-callout?rand=96749
