I en av matcherna på huvudkortet på fullspäckade UFC 211 på lördag får vi se Jorge Masvidal ta sig an den tuffaste utmaningen hittills i hans karriär då han gör upp med Demian Maia. #3-rankade Maia har vunnit sex raka matcher inom welterviktsdivisionen och anses vara en UFC:s absolut bästa grapplers.
Det är dock inget som oroar Masvidal, som själv anser sig vara den mer fulländade MMA-utövaren samt den bättre MMA-grapplern utav de båda. Det uppger han på onsdagens BJ Penn Radio:
HETAST JUST NU
“I think I’m better than him in MMA, and in MMA grappling,” säger Masvidal. “I’m going to prove it on Saturday. It’s my word against his. I can’t wait till Saturday to prove it to the world.”
Hoppas på en titelmatch
Jorge Masvidal berättar sedan vad en seger skulle betyda för hans karriär. Han berättar att han förväntar sig att en seger gör honom än mer igenkänd hos de breda massorna, och hoppas också på att en vinst mot Maia leder till en titelmatch mot mästaren Tyron Woodley:
“A win is going to make my future even brighter,” säger Masvidal. “The [Donald “Cowboy” Cerrone] fight helped me get known to the masses and those who didn’t even know who I was or what I was about. This fight’s just going to extra cement that, it’s going extra show my skills. It’s going to show I can fight with the top strikers in the world, I can fight with top grapplers in the world, or the best grappler in the world. It doesn’t matter.”
“I haven’t been promised the title shot,” fortsätter Masvidal. “Nobody has come to me and said ‘hey, you win this fight, you’ve got the title shot.’ It hasn’t been promised to me, but Maia’s the clear-cut number one contender by far. And after Maia, they were talking about how Cerrone was the next number one contender. Cerrone was the guy that was going to get the next title shot, and I put an end to that. So if I beat a guy like Cerrone, I beat a guy like Maia, and I don’t get the number one contendership spot, you know that this sport is taking a drastic turn to something other than your niche market, where it’s pop stars and reality tv, shit like that, you know. We’re not talking about skillset no more and who can fight if I’m not the one who gets the next title shot. It’s blatantly obvious.”
Kan Masvidal överraska mot Maia på lördag?