Jorge Masvidal, Anthony Pettis battle to draw in charity grappling showdown

On Saturday night, UFC welterweight contenders Jorge Masvidal and Anthony Pettis met in a charity grappling match. After ten minutes of entertaining action that saw both men have some success and lots of fun, the bout was scored a draw.

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Speaking on an upcoming episode of BJPenn.com Radio, Jorge Masvidal explained why he partook in this grappling match so soon ahead of his UFC 239 fight with Ben Askren.

“Well, I like to grapple,” Masvidal began. “I’ve been wanting to grapple for a while and I really haven’t told too many people about it. And my manager’s trying to ding me and he’s like, ‘Hey, this charity reached out to me. They’re putting together an event, you know’. First he told me what it’s going to support, and that’s to get kids from troubled areas, not such great areas, that can’t afford the gym, they put them in the gym, they buy the membership. They just give them something to do. Man, I was instantly sold, you know. I was like, ‘f**k yeah I got to be a part of that, bro.’ If this is what’s going on then count me in, you know.

“So, then my manager started looking at who I could possibly grapple and then Anthony Pettis came up and I was like, ‘wow perfect.’ I thought I would be grappling against a straight grappler or something. And it might not generate the same type of buzz with against Pettis which is a known, known fighter. And he’s a star grappler, I mean, he’s submitted some tough guys that are not easy to submit. So, it’s going to be fun man. I’m going to have a blast. It’s pretty cool man. I can’t not be apart of it. And I think when a lot of the other fighters find out about it I think it just be like a trend of a lot of guys just competing and give back. It’s a way I can give back that is so amazing, you know. Because, man this is what I do on a regular day. I’m going to grapple for 10 minutes. I do it every day times 10, you know.”

This charity event also featured an appearance from UFC middleweight contender Yoel Romero, who submitted heavyweight fighter Chris Barnett.

Are you surprised Jorge Masvidal and Anthony Pettis’ grappling match went the full 10 minutes?

This article first appeared on BJPENN.COM on 6/16/2019.