MMA Fighting - Jorge Masvidal Defends Nate Diaz, Talks Burns vs. Muhammad At UFC 288, Gamebred Bareknuckle

Episode Date: May 3, 2023

Former UFC competitor Jorge Masvidal joins MMA Fighting's Mike Heck to discuss Nate Diaz's recent incident in New Orleans, the UFC 288 matchup between Gilbert Burns and Belal Muhammad, Dana White being steadfast about rival Colby Covington getting a title shot next, his Gamebred Bareknuckle card this Friday in Sunrise, Fla., Roy Nelson's return to competition, and more. *Note: Interview was done prior to Panthers defeating the Bruins in seven games. Follow Mike Heck: @MikeHeck_JR Subscribe: http://goo.gl/dYpsgH Check out our full video catalog: http://goo.gl/u8VvLi Visit our playlists: http://goo.gl/eFhsvM Like MMAF on Facebook: http://goo.gl/uhdg7Z Follow on Twitter: http://goo.gl/nOATUI Read More: http://www.mmafighting.com Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Support for this show comes from the Audible Original, the downloaded two, ghosts in the machine. The Earth only has a few days left. Rosco Cudulian and the rest of the Phoenix colony have to re-upload their minds into the quantum computer, but a new threat has arisen that could destroy their stored consciousness forever. Listen to Oscar winner Brendan Fraser reprise his role as Rosco Cudulian in this follow-up to the Audible Original Blockbuster. The Downloaded, it's a thought-provoking sci-fi journey where identity, memory, and morality collide. Robert J. Sawyer does it again with this much-anticipated sequel that leaves you asking, What are you willing to lose to save the ones you love?

The Downloaded 2, Ghosts in the Machine. Available now, only from Audible. Support for this show comes from the Audible original, The Downloaded 2. Ghosts in the Machine. The Earth only has a few days left. Rosco Cudullian and the rest of the Phoenix colony have to re-upload their minds into the quantum computer, but a new threat has arisen that could destroy their stored consciousness forever. Listen to Oscar winner Brendan Fraser reprised his role as Rosco Cudulian in this follow-up to the Audible Original Blockbuster, The Downloaded.

It's a thought-provoking sci-fi journey where identity, memory, and morality collide. Robert J. Sawyer does it again with this much-anticipated sequel that leaves you asking, what are you willing to lose to save the ones you love? The downloaded two, Ghosts in the Machine,

available now, only from Audible. The Vox Media Podcast Network. All right, let us welcome back. Jorge Gamebred Mazadol to the channel. Yes, his fighting career may be over, but his promoter hat is back on. It continues to stay on. Gamebred Bear Knuckle.

up Cinco de Mayo, FLA Live Arena. Look at that meal, the home of the Florida Panthers. It's a bare-knuckle MMA event. First sanction event like this ever in Florida, I believe. And it will feature the return to combat action of one big country, Roy Nelson against Dylan Kleckler in the main event. Jorge, how are you, sir? Oh, I'm doing amazing, my brother.

Doing so good. Doing what I love to do. I can't fight. I know I'm not competing anymore, but doing what I love to do anyways, promoting fights, being in the combat world, being in the fight world. That being just a freaking great, magnificent card from top to bottom, season veterans against up and coming undefeated prospects,

bare knuckle. It's just, you know, as everybody knows, when you think it goes off, the finish rate goes up the roof. I just, I can't wait, man. We're kind of sports enemies right now, Jorge. I hope this isn't in the interview abruptly. I'm a Boston guy, born and raised, spent nearly four decades in Massachusetts.

And I have to say, as we record, I'm really enjoying this Bruins-Panthar series. I don't know about you. That was, that was, wow. I was there live at the last game on Sunday. Whoa, that was a freaking good game. I mean, we got, we got, you know, beat out pretty good, but, you know, it was a good day. And there was some good bras in there, too.

It was like two-three team-on-team-team-four, five-on-five. It was crazy, and I thought the whole freaking team was going to get out there at one point, you know, they got pretty nuts. I love playoff hockey. Panthers are a good team. They're pushing the bees out there. They're trying to out Bruins the Bruins. And Kachuk is a pain in the tookus, but a very good player. But we're not here to talk about that. First off, like I said at the top, the grind continues. How has the first few weeks of fighting retirement been treating you? I know you're promoting and you're very busy. But just having that sort of left behind, what have the last few weeks been like for you? very like bipolar upside down mixed bag of emotions because you know at one hand I know I'm not

I'm not going to do what I've always wanted to do as my favorite like one second about it is my favorite pastime uh funnest thing to do so it's different now because I just you know father time I've got to know but I could still like train and work out of a day so I'm happy about that you know so it's like a mixed bag

It's still very recent to the wound. I just got separated from M&A on that aspect. So I'm still very like open wound, you know, feeling fragile. So it's good to stay busy though, right? Very good to stay busy and keep all these things going on. I want to talk about the bare-knuckle event in a moment, but mentioned the promoter hat. You had the Gamebred Boxing 4 event earlier this month as we speak.

We saw Anthony Pettis get the winner of Roy Jones. And Josealdo, Jeremy, Stevens had a hell of a fight and a lot more. I know you couldn't make it because of your fight, but how did you feel everything went for that card in Milwaukee? Were you happy with everything? I love it. I was happy on many aspects. On other things, I just want to tie in up and do this a little better

and that a little tighter and, you know, nothing crazy. Just things that now that I've been wearing the promoter for a little longer, I see a couple of things that we could just probably make better. But as far as, like, the show went and like the production of it, it in the fights. I loved it all enough. Yes, Pearl Gonzalez and Gina Mazzani put on a war. Enjoyed that very much. Is this kind of going to be the standard for the boxing brand moving forward in your eyes? Like cards like this, these kinds of names. And I'm sure after the

payouts were released and made public, I assumed your phone has been ringing off the hook. Oh, yeah. Even before the payments were public, the phone was ringing off the hook. We have a simple model at our games like boxing. It's put on. on good fights from top the bottom, good competitive fights, people that we want to see, you know, Dervantes, Davis and Ryan Garcia, did you see that fighting? It was awesome. The fighter. But who's the co-main event?

I forget his damn, but he melted a dude. See, there you go. There you go. And I should have been watching. And no disrespect to those two great fighters who, you know, because they're great fighters, whoever was there was in the Coleman event. But that's something that boxing was very accustomed to where it said, oh, but who was the co-main event?

you know, we at Gamebred boxing want to put on good competitive cards that from the time it starts to the finish of you, you're watching boxing and we're giving you the type of matches that it'll keep you tuned in there. So we want to keep stacking it up like that, stacking those cards out.

And now it's Gamebred Bear Nuckle, historic event for Florida, Bear Nuckel in May. Roy Nelson is coming back. First fight since August of 2020 against Dylan Kleckler. Right, right now is a guy who said he was done competing and then less than three years later, He is back.

So I have to know how did this happen? How did this all come together? One thing next to another. We were able to talk to managers and the agents. And I see Mike actually, broker the whole deal. I was in the OIC Mike. And he was like, hey, I got,

well, might be interested. You know, he had a fight to just well through. Let me talk to him. And we got crazy lucky that we weren't expecting Big Groy to come aboard, you know. And as soon as that happened, we jumped all over it, finalized his deal. then we were looking for another good heavy way to fight him

and we're like, well, we got this guy 10 in O's an amateur, 10 knockouts. 11 and 1 is a pro with 10 knockouts. Yeah, this is the fight to make, you know. There's nothing but knockout violence going to happen in this fight. I mean, both these guys are going to be gunning for each other's heads. So it's going to be a great fight to see, you know. Orrinos himself has 19 finishes, 16 coming by way of tail.

So it's pretty impressive for heavyweight record like that. I'm very excited about this flight. We got Sordi Miliano as well, PFL light heavyweight champions, fighting the Kung Fu legend. Marcus Perez from American top team. Fighting the MMA took it all the brilliant way to the UFC. And now he's going to use his Kung Fu style of fighting in MMA bare-knuckle.

These chops will probably even be a little bit more effective. So I'm excited to see this young man. There's, I don't want to mess up his name, but Jamal Tatum, undefeated, is fighting Carl Sama Muntafa. I hope I didn't say that wrong, man. This is going to be another heavyweight freaking galore match.

These guys are going to be throwing down. Jamal Tatham has only been two decisions once, and Carl's a slugger, man. Carl's like, I think I might be ones. Records 12 and 3 with like 10 finishes or something. that as well. I'm just trying to get guys that have that dog spirit that are going to go out there and finish. Then we're going to take the gloves off of those same guys and let them fight and that I'm rip into each other. She comes out to winner. I saw names like Anthony and Jokwani, Sean Soriano or

Rivera. My sonoriano's on the card. Did I see, I was looking at the topology page earlier. Did I see that he's not crazy horse anymore, but the fighter formerly known as crazy horse felony is is fighting on this card too. He's fighting, key speed. Another American top team individual standout fighter will be fighting a felony. Is it Charles Bennett felony?

Yeah, he's felony now. I always know him as crazy horse, but he changed him up. Yeah, that's what we all knew him back in the day from. But now he's a felony Bennett, Charles. He's a hell of an entertainer, hell of a fighter. Yeah. What's that, buddy?

Can I click on them? No, no, no. click on it. No, right now. You're multitasking, which I can appreciate. What fight do you think steals the show that may not get the headlines on Fight Week? The Sean Seriano versus Agu Jusick fight is going to be a freaking good fight. That's going to be a good fight, man.

Both these guys are the style, the way, as I do like the MAME in my head and I go, okay. Not only go, I want two-standing guys, but I want, like, you know, the right, type of standup versus the right type of standup. So we get max exposure out of it. So we get like a good competitive fight. And I think these two are going to fucking throw down and beat the dog breaks out of each other. So where will this card be shown? We'll be sort of a, will be a pay-per-view again?

Like how, what's the viewing experience going to, going to be like for this one? We're going to be on a couple platforms. One of them is going to be YouTube, my YouTube page, as well as some, some channels on YouTube. and we're going to be dropping those links and where all the platforms that will be streaming from live will be on shortly. Hopefully by today, tomorrow, everybody will know where to catch it at,

but definitely you could catch it live on your team. Yeah, and Dana White had said he watched the boxing card, he enjoyed it, and he said he was impressed with the production of the event. He liked how the replays came right out. And for the first one like that, with all those names and being on pay-per-view, hearing the big boss give you some, Kudos for the production that had to make you feel good, right?

That's definitely amazing. I mean, you know, Dana, I think, is like the best promoter of my generation. You know, I can't think of anybody that comes close. And boxing is huge, and they do it big and all that. But, like, everything that Dana has done the last, like, 20 years, man, number one promoter pound for pound. So for him to be saying good things about us, especially very early on

in this stage and just fucking amazing I thank him for that and of course he's out promoting and announcing a bunch of fights and turns out the guy you just fought

three weeks ago is turning right around Gilbert Burns is fighting below Muhammad who kind of putting it all on the line May 6 the UFC 288 a day after your card

so it's going to be a hell of a weekend for combat sports how did you react to that considering that you and Burns just fought and we know what this division sort of looks like right now

what did you think when Dana announced that Gilbert's turning right around and getting right back after it. I love it. That's the competitive spirit. That's a fighter spirit.

That's always what's kept MMA going. And other comforts, maybe not rising to the top, is that our guys are eager to compete and fight against each other. And that's how it should be. Obviously, Gilbert's not waiting for nobody. You know, he just had the biggest point of his life and he's getting right back out there to prove and cemented, hey, I should be competing for this title.

So I love the mentality and the spirit behind it, you know? What do you think wins that fight? I think, you know, the more they grapple, it'll lean eventually towards Balam-Mohamed. I think he's more cardio-based, a little bit more gifted in the cardio, and then he has better cardio, especially in the grappling department. But overall, in the striking and the exchanges, I think Gilbert's going to have the power. He's going to have more variety where the strikes. I see this being a very good fight

because La Laos has, I think, better footwork than Gilbert, you know? And is he necessarily going to go for takens? I don't know, because Gilbert's also no sloth is back. So it's an interesting fight to see. I just, I can see him going both ways, but I'm leaning towards Gilbert for this one, obviously, you know? Yeah, and Blah's taking this fight on really short notice too.

So sure the dude's always in shape, but it is what it is. But Dane has been steadfast that Colby's going to get the title shot. and then they put this fight together and it just seems like, well, it's kind of a meritocracy, no-brainer, the winner of this fight should get the title shot. So is that how you feel it's going to go that Colby's still going to get Leon

and then the winner gets him? Or do you think the winner of this should just leapfrog Colby altogether? Kobe's a bitch and getting shit, bro. Yeah. The only thing he's getting is just eyes working, bro. That guy ain't getting shit, bro. You know, so. Obviously, you know, you just retired

and I know Colby was one you wanted to get back inside the Octagon, But is there an opponent you would have liked to have fought in your career that you didn't? Like Leon obviously would have been one the fans would say because we didn't get a real a real payoff there, so to speak. But is there anybody else that stands out to you? Like, damn it. Like I wish at some point during my long career I got to scrap it up with this guy. I was at 155 pounds for a long time.

I came over from strike forces like the number one contender was right after that pop for the title against Gilbert Melendez. and then strike force came over and all my counterparts got the fight ranked 55ers. I never did, you know, at 155 pounds, just for some reason the UFC would not give me those matches. You know, they haven't been fighting numerous guys outside of the top 15. They were very dangerous and tough fights.

And then I started fighting some guys that were in the top 15 later on, but they never let me get like those top five, top 10 guys that they had at the UFC. So I always wanted to fight those guys at lightweight and see how we'd have truly like stacked up against him. So whoever would have been at the top of the lightweight when I was there, that's exactly who I would have wanted to fight champions of the top five guys.

You know, everybody in there. A few last things where you go. I thought about you when I saw some other things because I covered the last couple of icon FC cards in Savannah, Georgia. And you're obviously a big star. and people when they come, they want to talk to you and take pictures with you. And I've said this many times publicly, you do a very good job with that. Like when the card is over, you stand there and you take photos with everybody.

Everybody wants to talk to you. And on Friday, we saw Nate Diaz sort of get into some skirmishes through a water bottle, went out on the street. And this is all this stuff going on now from a legal perspective for Nate. And Nate's a star too. And wherever that man goes, crowds. of people follow him around. They want to take pictures with the man. They want to talk to

Nate Diaz, just like they want to talk to you. Sometimes people want to make a name for themselves talking crap to a starfighter. So I don't know if that's ever happened to you, but how do you handle that stuff? And what did you think of that situation? For the Nate Diaz situation, you know, I'm not like

I haven't seen like all the camera angles and this and that, but from what I know and from what I've seen, it looks like that dude attacked Nate and Nate defended himself and instead of being like punching him in the face and breaking his jaw he was very cool about it

and just like put him to sleep you know like yo chill out you know don't get crazy so I don't know I saw that he got hit with some charges and stuff

I think that's like bullshit you can't be running up on nobody you know you just can't you got to respect everybody and just like I can't just run up on people and pick fights

or whatever it is how it looks in the video it's like weird. It looks like they're pushing up on him and it's kind of backing up. And then it happened, you know, so I don't know what else is saying. Then, you know, at least here in Florida,

we've got this rule called stand your ground. You could defend yourself if somebody's attacking. I don't know how it works in Vietnam and stuff. But it just looks crazy, man, because it's like a fighter. A lot of people do want to tanner you sometimes and have a couple of drinks and then want to like start mouthing off. And, you know, it goes from like half joke

game till now they want to like play far with you and it's like well i don't play like that at all you know if i don't know me and you're like fucking around it's like we could either go 100% or not go at all you know so uh don't go too far so i can't um i can't side with that with that with them getting with charges and shit for nothing you know defending himself yeah it's i mean i can imagine sometimes it's a little overwhelming for for you even just being out like like i said you're very gracious and you take pictures and you take pictures and and hang out, but sometimes it's got to be a little overwhelming, right? When I'm with my kids, yeah.

That's the only time I get overwhelmed, you know. I'm like, my family, we're at a dinner, we're like at the movies or something. And, you know, it's like one person has been like staring at me the whole time and finally calling and say, hey, man, I'm so sorry. So sorry, which you're not because you're going to still ask for it anyways. Can I get a picture? And I'm like, looking around, all right, I got you. And then I give him that picture.

and then 20 people stand up, like, I wasn't going to say anything, but if he got a picture, can I get a picture? And then that, you know, that's trouble. I'm with my kids and my kids are getting crazy. They're like, man, I want to spend time with you, what's going on, so we don't go out and eat them with things like that. You know, but it comes into the territory, right? I signed up for this.

My paychecks depended on how many individuals either loved or hated me or just knew of me, you know? So I can't complain now that I've achieved that pain, you know? So it just comes with the territory. As far as the promoting goes, we have this card May 5th, Gamebred Bearknuckle, FLA Live Arena. What else is in the works? Do we have more boxing events?

Do we have any ICONFC stuff coming up this year? Like anything else that you can talk about that we can look forward to over the next several months? ICANNFC, we've still got some deals in the work that we'll be bringing it back. But I'll tell you this much, we've got a boxing card that I'll be coming back to discuss with you in about two weeks' time that I'll be dropping that is going to be better than the last one. And the last one was bad.

That one was nice. It's going to be better than the last one. And I also have a very well-watched, profound grappler making his appearance on Gamebred, Bearknuckle. This is a very highly acclaimed grappler. It's going to come in to Bearknuckle, you know, once everything gets done and sign and this and that, We'll blow the brains out everybody when they see it, but the news is it's going to break some headlines. On this card?

No, no, no, no. I was going to say. Yeah, in a future card that I come on, you're showing. We'll discuss it. Once every, all the T's get crossed and all the I get dotted, this individual is going to break a lot of headlines. And just one of these standout grapplers, you know, I won't say nothing else.

All right, fair enough. We could probably figure it out if I played the guessing game, but I won't do that to you. But I knew you couldn't, you know, because it's going to throw you off, you know, but all I'll say, it's a hell of a world-class grabler. All right. Something to look forward to. We can also look forward to game bread,

bare knuckles, Cinco de Maya, the night before UFC 288, so combat sports fans are going to be excited for the weekend. FLA live arena, Sunrise, Florida, the home of the Florida Panthers. Jorge, always great chatting with you. All the best to you in the build of this card, and thank you for your time as always.

Thank you, my brother. God bless. I want to thank God always in every time for everything. So thank you, God Almighty. Tickets available live at TicketMasher.com. Thank you, anybody.