Jorge Masvidal details why he was “95 percent certain” that his flying knee would KO Ben Askren

Jorge Masvidal was confident he would be able to KO Ben Askren with a flying knee after he got face-to-face with him.

Masvidal and Askren fought back in July of 2019 at UFC 239 at International Fight Week in a highly anticipated fight. The pair engaged in a ton of trash talk in the leadup to the contest, with Askren claiming he would easily be able to outwrestle Masvidal. Once the pair went face-to-face, ‘Gamebred’ was certain ‘Funky’ would try and shoot right away.

“When I saw him face-to-face every time and it was straight my IQ versus yours and my improvisation versus your improvisation,” Masvidal said on the Joe Rogan Experience. “Maybe you have been thinking about some stupid s**t for like a month and you will say it to me now. But he froze every single time, there were a lot of encounters we had off-camera. Every single time, it was unscripted like that, just spur of the moment, couldn’t keep it together. I was like, I not only need to run at him, but I need to have a change of speed because that is going to make him go to his natural crotch-sniffing instincts.

“If I just change the speed on him, he is going to f****g duck. That is why I came out slow, cut the little angle and let him oh okay we are going to circle it up,” Masvidal continued. “As soon as I change speed what does he do? Go to his f****g initial instincts as a crotch sniffer. Go sniff the crotch. Instead, you are going to kiss this knee goodbye, though.

“When I’m doing it the night before I’m like 95 percent certain because of the way he is acting all week,” Masvidal concluded about Askren. “All I have to do at any given moment is just get this guy uncomfortable. Go from chill to invading his space, whether it was in the opening bout or in the second round, or midway through the third round. I just knew I had to invade his space and he was going to go to his natural instincts. I know I keep saying it, but I just knew it, the way he would freeze up every time we talked, the way he walked, the way he would get stiff, I just knew.”

Jorge Masvidal did end up landing the flying knee and got the KO win in just five seconds. The victory allowed him to headline UFC 244 at Madison Square Garden for the BMF title against Nate Diaz. After winning that fight, he earned back-to-back title shots against Kamaru Usman – but wound up losing on both occasions.

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