Shortly after Jorge Masvidal defeated Ben Askren with a five-second flying knee knockout at UFC 239, he called for a superfight with Conor McGregor. UFC President Dana White, however, promptly shut this idea down, claiming Masvidal is simply too big for a fight with McGregor.
Apparently, this comment from White did not go over well with McGregor.
“Yeah, Masvidal is too big for him, man. I think Masvidal is too big, Conor disagrees. Conor was not happy that I said Masvidal was too big for him,” White said after UFC 240 (transcript via LowKickMMA).
“[He said] ‘That pisses me off that you say he’s too big for me.’ I’m telling you guys, I’ve said it a million times, and I’ll say it again, this guy will fight anybody,” White added when asked to elaborate. “And I don’t care if he’s pissed off about it or not, I think Masvidal is too big for Conor. So, if we ever get to that point, I’m sure it’s something that Conor and I will fight about.”
For what it’s worth, Chael Sonnen predicted this reaction from Conor McGregor with impressive accuracy.
“TMZ confronted Dana White and asked him straight up, Masvidal vs. Conor McGregor, yes or no? Dana White said, ‘no we’re not gonna do that fight. Jorge is too big for him.’ Everybody was just happy to accept that,” Sonnen said. “‘Okay we’ve got our answer, take Jorge off. I guess we gotta look back at Tony now. Hey is there anything to that ‘Cowboy’ Cerrone fight we heard about? Hey what’s Al Iaquinta up to?’ Guys, guys please, please don’t miss this. The biggest fight promoter in the history of promotion just went to TMZ, one of the biggest outlets aside from ESPN itself to cover this sport on a mainstream level. He picked his words very carefully and if any of you missed this, come on!”
“‘No we’re not going to do that fight,’ is all anybody took away. They missed the second sentence of why. Because Jorge is too big. Do you think that’s gonna sit well with an ego like Conor McGregor? Do you think Conor McGregor does not know that Dana White just told the world that he personally believes that Jorge could beat Conor and even offered up an excuse? Do you think that that story was out for more than five minutes before it got to Conor and he grabbed his phone and contacted Dana to say, ‘hey you think he’s too big for me?’ I can guarantee you that message from Conor to Dana has already happened.”
Do you think we’ll ever see a fight between Conor McGregor and Jorge Masvidal?
This article first appeared on BJPENN.COM on 7/28/2019.