Jorge Masvidal regrets his UFC 272. performance.
Masvidal fought Colby Covington in the biggest fight of his career. Masvidal spent five rounds fighting takedowns, getting outwrestled and defending Colby’s win. He eventually lost a unanimous decision.
While losses are obviously part of competition, the 37-year-old veteran laments just how bad this particular setback stings, especially when he considers how much he wanted to beat Covington.
“To lose against a b **** such as that, I mean that all he does it talk about children, religions and nations. Naturally nobody would want to lose to someone like that,” Masvidal stated at UFC 272’s post-fight press conference. Masvidal said that he felt as though he had lost in the wrestling matches. It was a fight. I know I did damage. He was probably dropped twice. This is just so frustrating.
“[I was] Flat in wrestling, and he leapt on it to be able take me down. There was like one or two times where I felt him getting really tired on the takedowns, and all of a sudden, he got that takedown. I was like stuffing the second and third attempt then on the fourth one, he got me down. He’s got good control once he’s on top.”
In the striking exchanges, Masvidal definitely had his moments, but none bigger than the fourth round, when he clipped Covington with a punch that dropped the former interim welterweight champion down to a knee.
With Covington still wobbled from the punch, Masvidal failed to really follow up with the kind of barrage that could have potentially ended the fight.
” I didn’t jump after dropping him,” Masvidal stated. “I wasn’t surprised that he bounced up. It was only that I did not take his head off. He was going to shoot me immediately, which I assumed was why I didn’t just take his head off. I was tired. He was exhausted and hurt.
“That was my chance right there. That was that window of like five or six seconds to give it all I’ve got and make a sprint and make a big change. Maybe I could have made that round 10-8, 10-7, who knows but I didn’t take that opening.”
According to Masvidal, he wasn’t surprised by the strategy that Covington employed but he can only lament his inability to force the fight to go in a different direction.
“I wrestled like s***,” Masvidal said. “I lost a lot of exchanges that if I would have won them, I mean on a technical level things could have gone a little different. If I would have made him expend more energy on certain takedowns. That first takedown I gave up, he took my back and he rode me pretty good. I was a bit flattened by that. Went into the next round, I felt like I won a lot of the exchanges.
” I felt more comfortable on my feet than I did on the floor. But, it was a fight and it is a battle. ***, If I had the chance to do it over again, it would be to college to wrestle and get better grades. However, the wrestling .”
wasn’t for me.
In his three previous losses, two against UFC champion Kamaru Usman and then Covington Saturday night, Masvidal had to give up a total 13 number of takedowns as well as 35 control time. That’s how he knows he has to make some dramatic improvements in his wrestling if he hopes to win these kinds of fights, and why he’s not trying to call out anybody coming off this loss.
“I think the only thing that makes sense is for me to get in the gym, me to get into track and field and just get after it,” he said. “Get in great shape, see where my headspace is at and then three or four months from now, make that decision who’s next. For right now, I want to clear the cobwebs up. Although I don’t feel hurt, or anything like that. It is a loss to punks like this.
” I must ensure that I am able to deal with another wrestler if I have to fight them. It’s always been tough fights for me with the wrestlers. To think, “is he going shoot on me?” so I don’t get as open on my feet. Then I do big scrambles to get out of the way. I need to fix the wrestling.”
After the decision was read in the octagon, Masvidal and his coaches were still exchanging words with Covington and his team in the cage, which proved that the disdain between the fighters was definitely real and not some kind of manufactured hype.
Masvidal knows he’s got some work to do if he’s ever going to earn a rematch. But then again, he might still try to settle the score if he happens to cross paths with Covington outside the UFC.
“He just talked about my children, Masvidal stated. “He’s still somebody that if I see him out in the streets, I’m going to give him everything I’ve got to break his f**** jaw. It doesn’t matter if I lost wrestling scrambles tonight, I still think he’s a f***** p****, you know?”
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