MMA Fighting - Jorge Masvidal Lays Out Challenge To Nate Diaz, Talks Gamebred Bareknuckle, Gaethje BMF Title Win

Episode Date: September 5, 2023

Jorge Masvidal joins MMA Fighting's Mike Heck to preview Saturday's Gamebred Bareknuckle MMA event this Friday in Jacksonville headlined by former UFC heavyweight champions Junior dos Santos and Fabricio Werdum, discusses the notable names on the card, why he believes this will be a "landmark event" for the promotion, Justin Gaethje's BMF title win over Dustin Poirier and clarifying a timeline for a potential fight with Gaethje should he want to end his retirement, a co-promotional challenge to Nate Diaz and why he'd love to work with him in the future, and more. 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 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 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 say hello to the original BMF champion Jorge Mazadol. He's donning the promoter hat once again. This Friday, Jacksonville, Florida, stand-up, Duval, game bread, air knuckle,

MMA, Vistar Veterans Memorial Arena. The main event, two former UFC heavyweight champions taken off the gloves and battling it out. Junior Dos Santos versus Fabricio Verdume along with the card packed with recognizable names. Jorge, good to see you, man. I appreciate the time so close to the card. I assume the excitement levels are rising with each day. Great fucking introduction to game with Bernarduckle. Thank you.

But we're going to have to hire you for the promos. You got a job, brother. Oh, sweet. Wow. This is the... Listen, man. Yeah, you said it. We're pumped.

Every day we're getting close and closer. We're here out right now, just handing out some flowers doing the old-fashioned boots on the ground-type approach. And, you know what I'm saying? We're spreading the word. The fight is to watch. Everybody knows it's going to be JDS.

We're doing, obviously. But we've got so many good fights on the card as well. Joel Balman versus coconut bombs is going to be fucking insane. the winner of that is going to be facing is going to be a number one contender for the belt so we're excited man

it's going to be a hell of a fucking night we got some other can I curse on this one I forget if I can't think you're horrible Mazadol I'll do it every going to do you're good I didn't know if we're live right I'm man because sometimes you're confused the other one I'm somebody's getting fine

and they're like cutting the connection I'm like what's happening they know because you curse I was like oh well nobody told me that it can curse you But anyways, we got a couple of dudes at the 135. We got Irvin. This guy is good.

Another number one contendership type fight. And got my boy Joe. The party, right? Joe the Panfiel. Penafil? Yes, sir. I always been butchers last time. I don't want him to kick my ass, my bad brother.

This dude is a dog, man. And every time he comes to fight, he brings it gloves and no gloves. He's taking fights for us in 6th day notice. And he's fighting some of the best free agents out in the market on 6th day notice. We had him fight this tough, tough dude from Greg Jackson that was very well-rounded. And he's still doing very well this kid. And he fought him like on 6-8 notice and they did a hell of a fight, you know. And from that, we believed in them more and more.

And we keep booking him. So he's another guy that we think is going to be at the top of 135 as well. We also got Reggie North up on the card. He's a great athlete, mean guy. He likes to finish people. He's also a local native to Jacksonville, Florida. So we're punk, man. This is our biggest event.

This is our landmark event. You know, the card is stacked from top to bottom. You guys got him early, I think, in the first round. I don't remember exactly when, but it was earlier in the first round. And Redoom was the more known guy, the more established guy already. and JDS was, I would say, not really known to that point, only to like the hardcore fans and he smashed them out. He caught him with an overhand, right?

You know, but Redoom went on to become one of the greatest heavyweights afterwards. I submitted three of the best heavyweights ever, and his kickboxing, his move to his knees, elbows has evolved so much. JDS has also evolved, I think, in the wrestling department. He went out to have those wars with Kane, and his wrestling was so freaking good on the defensive side. You know, just cane, hats off OSTK, one of the greatest heavyweights that had that

had that insane pressure that could melt somebody because he put so many attempts and he had good hands, you know. King's one of my favorite all-time heavyweights as well. So it's just interesting to see, you know, that the JDA still has that power and speed, man. I just, I can't wait to watch these guys in them. The Doom's grappling is only going to be more lethal with no gloves, you know. It's easier now. I think, you know, most grapplers would agree that, you know, a lot of the finishing is positioning,

but it's also that lock. It's that grip that you have, how tight that grip is, you know, that's going to secure your finishing hold. And when you don't have gloves, that's a lot of obstruction out of the way, you know,

so you could potentially hurt more faster, you know. Also, these hands, when there's no gloves, are slippery, they're just sliding into spots a lot quicker. So now that rear naked, when you get somebody's back, you're getting right to it. Instead of somebody grabbing your glove and just, like, stalling here for, like,

three minutes and nothing happens, you know? So there's a lot more action on both ends. And to have the type of talent that we have, like just in the co-mainian, and both of these guys are incredibly talented and their dogs. And when we pick the guys for MMA Bearknuckle, it's just not everybody's couple things. So we've got to make sure we're very selective.

It's a certain individual that's going to perform one of Bear Knuckle, and those are the ones that we're looking for. So we take our time scouting. So, you know, I'm telling you, this card is going to sit us, put us at another strategy. Like, it's going to be a different talk. It seems like these guys were jumped in a time machine and went back 15 years ago because they are both looking pretty damn good getting off the bus. Tremendous shape, look better than ever.

It's crazy to think about it. And you've spent time with both of these guys heading into this fight. Does the mental match the physical in terms of the readiness here from the conversations you've had with these guys? I mean, the number one thing in a fighter is you want to see the confidence. And like if he thinks, you know, some guys are old school and they think that, you know, running three miles up this hill every day was, was like their peak of the shape. And as long as they're confident in that, they're always dangerous, especially guys like this that are in shape, you know, and I just see that their mind is in the right place to where they both equally think they're going to win, you know. I had a nice long talk with, we were doing when we were in California, we're going to spend a lot of time together. And he tells me he's been feeling good.

He had the time off. so his joints, these back, aches, all types of stuff that you don't talk about in the interviews and you don't say,

but he's beat up and you're not going to be telling everybody here, I'm beat up, but he had this time to rest. He feels amazing. He feels really, really good. He's been grappling,

striking, sparring, farting in. And he says, this is some of the best shape he's been in, you know, and I mean, he looks at, so I'm taking him for face value. With JBS,

another hand, it's just crazy, powerful, and explosive. I was watching him hit the pads, and he, He's still 80%, 90% faster than most of the UFC heavyweight speed-wise, you know, and power-wise, the way that guy ripsy, he's in an elite percentage of guys that are that big that can move that quick.

He's just built different, you know? And he's another guy that if you've been keeping up with him, he looks like he's a fucking great shape. So I just, I just can't wait to obviously be a promoter more than anything to be a fan for that fight. Put my phone to the side. Don't talk to me. like please don't ask me for no picture right now i don't give you fuck who i went to school with

don't talk to me right now when this fight is on because i'm going to watch you make and it's also on youtube on my youtube channel just subscribing it's free on twitter on facebook so please check us out it'll be streamed live and free there is there's one other fight that that was kind of on the card but then didn't really hear much from it um sean soriano hennonon brown i think at one point was supposed to be on it and brow had brow had mentioned something about Do you know what happened with that? From what I know, it's visa issues. We just had some visa issues getting in and over here and stuff

and the paperwork, what was happening. I don't know if that was the final issue, but that's what I heard was last, you know. But that's not a fight that's not done. That's a fight that we desperately want to make. We would love to make this fight. At some point, we just don't know, you know. It just has to make sense as well.

Fair enough. You've been a very busy man, obviously, promoting this event, but you're also in Salt Lake City for the BMF title fight between Disseportia and Justin Gachi. Gachie gets the victory. You got to be there and wrap the belt around Gachi's waist. What was that experience like for you? It was the belt that you won that you have had in the gym based on your performance against Nate Diaz and to wrap it around Justin's waist instead of Dustin's.

What was that like for you? Well, on a personal, and never known against Gagie, because I think he's a hell of a competitor. Um, you know, shit, man, I'm, I've known my boy with D.P. for a minute, you know, uh, and we've been training out of American top team for a fucking long time, you know. So, fuck, it hurt because I 100% thought it was coming with us, you know, then after the first round, I'm like, it's a right. It's a right. And then bam, you know, and then the fight happened, you know, and that's the fight world. I, I, I, I think Dustin is better than, uh, engage it.

They fight again. Dustin could do that to engagey, and they could always be like, they keep splitting them like that. But that's what happens at the fight game. When you fight in the elite level, guys, especially both of these guys are the embodiment of BMF because they go for that finish, you know? And they're both like, foolish dudes. You wouldn't even tell them that they're just chilling there, you know?

But they could fight, man. And more so they got that killer instinct to go for that kill. And that's something that I always admire in a quality of a fighter, you know, to go for that indie. you know yeah gachi throughout the week was he took it as a sense of pride that you were going to wrap the belt around his waist you were saying throughout the week that he was going to make sure that you wrapped it around his waist instead of dustins did did you see that um i mean i'm i'm sure he said that he's a fighter that's what he's supposed to say promote himself but uh

if he takes it personal he's just a fucking idiot right because of course i'm gonna go for deep he's my he's my boy's my brother then you know i know this guy inside of the the the training environment And I know the type of guy that he is outside his role. He's a good person, man. He's a good husband. He's a good father. You know, he's a great teammate. He's a good friend, you know.

So 100% I was with Dustin, man. Nothing personal against Gajie. Maybe me and Gageon when I get like a board of retiring of promoting and I retire a couple years from now. We'll fight for the BML. It'll be fun, you know. He's a hell of a fighter on the feet. He goes for the kill. I'm going to try to snipe his head off.

It'll be a hell of a fight later on the line. He's going to do his thing now at 1, 15. But later on, we can fight, you know, get that little paycheck. Yeah, I know you talked to the great Mark Romandi about this and it made some headlines that, you know, what should Gage you do? He should defend it against you. But this is not something just to clarify, we're not knocking on the door. We're not taking phone calls right the second for that fight. This is down the line.

He said a couple of years. Yeah, yeah. Gagie's doing this thing at 55 now. He's going to go fight for that belt, I'm sure, or I don't know what his future is, you know, but I'm not fighting. right now I'm promoting. This is what I'm doing, my brother. Junior, those times of the versus Fabrice for doing this Friday. Yes.

What's going on with Game Bread Boxing? I know you've got this one. You don't want to look too far ahead, but I assume coming off of that event in Milwaukee. We're always looking ahead. We got an event. It's going to be brought to you in December. And I got huge news. I got big news.

You're not going to believe who headlines the event. You're not going to believe who's the event. co-main event, but I'm telling you, the main event is going to be intense. It's going to break. It's going to break. I promise you, when it drops, we'll have the same conversation. And if I didn't take you and throw you for a loop, I'll be surprised, okay? Really?

All right. You just be honest. If your jaw don't drop, like hit the floor, you get your money back. See, that will do live so you can get my natural reaction to it. And then you can judge me from that. You don't want to do that. You're going to become a mean. They don't mean your fuck out of you, bro.

Jod dropped and crooked on the floor. So kind of going back to teasing announcements, the last time we spoke, this is a little while back, you had mentioned that you were close to signing a name from the grappling world that would give me the same reaction. Is this the same thing? No, this is on the boxing side. Okay.

This is on the boxing side. On the grappling, we hit a couple hurdles with a couple. a couple different situations with contracts and things like this, you know, still very likely going to happen, but just not in the time spend that we wanted originally. So we're pushing that out of them back. But this boxing news will be made official who will be headlining that card within like two to three weeks. Everybody will know. Do we know where this event's happening at or is that part of the announcement? No, we don't. We don't know that yet, but it will be part of the announcement. Fair enough.

Last thing I wanted to ask you about, because, you know, you say Friday nights the landmark event, this is the one that's going to put you guys over the top, right? And if all goes according to plan, you're going to obviously peak the interest of some of the bigger name free agents out there to see because I was on the ground in Dallas for the Jake Paul Nate Diaz fight. And one of the things that Nate kept talking about was he didn't feel like the promotion that he was a part of was very professional in building this fight. There were a lot of weird things that happened in the audience and he wasn't very happy about that. So he said he learned a lot of things from the promotional end when it came to what he's going to do next. I'm sure he made a lot

of money. He put on a fun fight for the fans and that's great. But Nate's still kind of a free agent looking for his next move, looking for a place to fight, a professional place to fight, possible co-promotional type stuff. With Nate being a free agent in this event, kind of being like a waterfall to put you guys over the top. Is that a conversation you'd be willing to have at some point? Maybe getting Nate involved in bare-knuckle MMA, maybe a co-promotion type thing. Like, is he a name that you would be interested in at least reaching out to? No, just because of good of a fighter, he was, his business is always welcome and stuff like that.

Definitely, you know, business is a ton of money than me and Nate could always make together, you know? on my end there's no ever bitter feelings on you know that but there could be something i mean you guys together promoting a card would be probably insane you know maybe he has one of his fighters that he wants to put against one of my fighters i know he has a couple signed heavyweights to his promotion i know uh we could we could definitely make a part of uh some of the guys i got signed against his guys oh i love that idea i love that we'd do like a bmm MF promotion title. I don't know if it's gimmick infringement on the UFC,

but you could do something like that. We could just freaking throw it down. You know, I'll pick my 10 fighters. You can pick his 10 fighters and let's go to war. And me and him can put some cash money bets on the side, you know? They could go back to the fighters in different ways, something like that. I'm in for that, you know, because I know he made a nice bag. Not for that.

So if he wants to gamble it up, put like a card together, my 10 versus your 10, you let me know, man. I'm fucking in. This is a great setup by you. This pitch was great by you, brother. That's a great idea. I mean, you already offered me a job like two seconds into the interview, so I got to make it worth a while.

The interest was spiritual, brother. All right. I don't remember that, bro. Well, I'm going to give you a good outro too. This Friday night, Jacksonville, Florida, Duval, stand up, Fabricia Verdume versus Junior Dos Santos two. Bareknuckle MMA, game bread, bear knuckle, MMA, going down at the Vistar Veterans Memorial Arena.

Get your tickets, Ticketmaster. or you can watch it on YouTube on Jorge's page. You can watch it anywhere, all over social media, wherever you can find your fights. Jorge, thank you so much for the time as always. Best of luck to you on Friday. Looking forward to it. Thank you, brother.

Appreciate you, man. God bless. Have a good day. And thank you everybody for tuning in. Thank you all my fans for all the years that I did in fighting. Thank you for everybody supports me in the game, and The Game Brin' Knuckle, and the shows love to all these brave competitors, I think.

God bless everybody. You're listening to the Vox Media Podcast Network. You know,