Jorge Masvidal maintains that a UFC return is in his future. Masvidal has not competed in mixed martial arts since April 2023 but hopes to return to the Octagon as early as this year.
Masvidal pivoted to a boxing match against longtime UFC rival Nate Diaz in July while still under UFC contract. He lost the fight via majority decision, his fifth consecutive defeat in professional combat sports. Masvidal, 39, is confident he can turn the corner despite his poor fortunes.
“I had a blast doing the boxing. It was fun. It was everything, but there’s just nothing in the world that compares to MMA,” Masvidal recently told Grind City Media. “There ain’t shit in the world like MMA. I just finished up training at American Top Team right now and it’s just the funnest thing I’ve ever done in my life.
“There’s a lot of nights I went to sleep just missing it, just doing certain training or certain workouts. I f—ing love it, man. Definitely 100% back to MMA. I don’t know when I’m fighting, but I’m fighting either the end of this year or next year.”
Masvidal’s career resurgence in 2019 made him one of MMA’s biggest stars. He knocked out Darren Till, Ben Askren and Nate Diaz in succession. The Askren KO was the fastest in UFC history (five seconds) and he beat Diaz to become the inaugural BMF champion, a title later held by Justin Gaethje and Max Holloway.
Masvidal cashed in his success for a pair of failed welterweight title bids against Kamaru Usman. “Gamebred” took a break from MMA after subsequent losses to Colby Covington and Kamaru Usman but believes one big performance puts him back in the mix.
“When I get the biggest fights that I can possibly get, knock that motherf—er dead, they’ll be begging me to fight for the title,” Masvidal said. “A title run is never ever out of the question. Especially for somebody as skilled as me.”
