Jorge Masvidal explains why he doesn’t respect Kamaru Usman’s fighting style ‘at all’

Jorge Masvidal has never been particularly impressed with UFC welterweight champion Kamaru Usman’s fighting style. That’s truer than ever now that Usman allegedly turned down a fight with him.

Speaking to the media ahead of yesterday’s UFC Mexico card, Masvidal explained why he’s not a fan of Usman’s fighting style. Apparently, it has nothing to do with Usman being a wrestler and more to do with the lack of finishes on the champ’s record.

“Why do you think he said no [to a fight with me], my brother?” Masvidal said (via MMA Junkie). “That guy knows that I’m going to baptize him. That guy has never wanted to fight with me. That guy can only do one thing right: smell balls good. He can’t fight. He has his face there. He doesn’t want to [throw hands], even when he has the chance to throw the hands, and when he has the guy on the floor, he doesn’t do anything.

“It’s not that I don’t have respect for wrestlers. I have a lot of respect to the community of wrestlers, like Khabib [Nurmagomedov]. I have a lot of respect for him because he tries to finish fights, he tries to get his hands in there, he tries to choke people. Someone like Usman, I don’t respect his style at all. As a person, I don’t know him, and what I do know, it doesn’t interest me much about him.”

While Jorge Masvidal does not consider Kamaru Usman particularly exciting, he says he’s determined to entertain the fans whenever he steps into the cage. That includes his upcoming fight with Nate Diaz, scheduled for UFC 244 on November 2.

“I promise them just violence, totally, second to second,” Masvidal said. “I’m not going to stop until my heart stops or they have ended the fight. That’s my mentality for all my fights. In this fight, it’s a bit more because my opponent has the same mentality as me. He wants to destroy me completely, and that gives me the extra motivation that sometimes you need, that I haven’t had in years, to motivate me to wake up earlier, to go to bed earlier, to eat a little better when I’m not in Mexico, with more discipline.”

“I have to entertain the people. If you have to pay the money that you work hard to earn, the people that work construction, the people that cut grass, have to pay money, that people have an option. They want to see violence, and if they want to see violence they’re going to pay for that and not going to choose him. They’re not going to pick the people that don’t give it their all in the sport, that don’t try to risk it, that want to win for the smallest thing, most minimal thing possible. I’m not like that. I want to win. I want to give it my all.”

What do you think of these comments from Jorge Masvidal?

This article first appeared on BJPENN.COM on 9/22/2019.