Jorge Masvidal say he’s ‘leaning towards Usman’ over Conor McGregor

Conor McGregor is back in the win column, thanks to a 40-second drubbing of Donald “Cowboy” Cerrone, and the fight community is already wondering who he’ll fight fight next. While McGregor has plenty of options for his next bout, it’s arguable the most compelling matchup available to him at present is streaking welterweight contender Jorge Masvidal.

At this stage, Masvidal has undeniably earned a crack at UFC welterweight champion Kamaru Usman. But with Usman nursing an injury, it’s been suggested that he could meet McGregor in a lucrative fight in the meantime — perhaps even with an interim title on the line.

While Masvidal is open to a fight with McGregor, however, he says his preference is currently for a title fight Usman.

Masvidal weighed his options on Ariel Helwani’s MMA Show on Monday.

“That’d be good too, if Conor wanted to do that,” Masvidal said of an interim title fight with McGregor. “One of these guys is going to scrap with me. I’m leaning, right now, towards Usman, the way he’s been talking s**t. If Conor wants to get it done, it won’t be hard to get it done, but I’m not going to sit here and entertain bulls**t and stuff, you know? I just want to scrap.”

When asked if he wasn’t impressed with McGregor, Masvidal assured otherwise. He simply believes he and McGregor have differing goals at this juncture.

“It’s not that I’m not impressed,” Masvidal said of McGregor. “He has different plans. I’m not trying to ruin his plans, either. He’s got his own plans and things he wants to do… Go and get them done, my brother. I could give a f**k less. I’m going to get money no matter what.”

Would you rather see Jorge Masvidal fight Conor McGregor or Kamaru Usman next?

This article first appeared on BJPENN.com on 1/20/2020.