Jorge
Masvidal wants to settle his old beef with Leon
Edwards inside the Octagon.
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Masvidal and Edwards’ feud dates back to a
Ultimate Fighting Championship card in London in 2019. They met
backstage after Masvidal knocked out Darren Till
and Edwards roped in a split-decision win over Gunnar
Nelson. Masvidal was conducting a post-fight interview with
ESPN before leaving the set to confront Edwards. The two proceeded
to
trade blows backstage, and “Gamebred” landed a three-punch
combo, which he iconically named “three piece and a soda.”
While this was the perfect setup for a matchup between the two, it
never quite came to fruition. According to Masvidal, he had
accepted an outing against “Rocky” but the Englishman turned it
down.
“I know he wouldn’t fight me. He got offered and turned it down,”
Masvidal recently told MMAFighting.com. “He don’t want this. I tried
[to fight him]. Leon
Edwards don’t want this. He had other options, he went for
other things except fight me, basically. I’ll tell you that
much.”
Masvidal retired from the UFC after a unanimous decision loss
against Gilbert
Burns in April 2023 — his fourth consecutive loss within the
promotion. After announcing that he was “unretired,” Masvidal went
on to fight Nate Diaz in a
boxing match, dropping a close majority decision on July 6. The
former BMF champ has since stated that he has contacted the UFC regarding a potential
return.
Meanwhile, Edwards lost his welterweight title in a unanimous
decision loss against Belal
Muhammad at UFC 304
this past July. While Masvidal’s return has not been finalized,
“Gamebred” vows to “whoop” No.1 ranked Edwards in a potential
matchup.
“I’ll tell you right now, Leon, I will whoop your f—-ing ass. Let’s
f—ing go,” Masvidal said. “I don’t know, maybe Dec. 7 in Vegas,
maybe next year at the Super Bowl. I don’t know but I’ll beat the
f—k out of your little skinny ass.”
Meanwhile, Masvidal had high praise for the newly-crowned
welterweight champ and the improvement “Remember the Name” has
shown over the years.
“For starters, Belal has [improved] so much since I first saw him,”
Masvidal said. “I saw him fight live before in the UFC and it’s
like he’s not the best athlete, he doesn’t have the craziest skill
set. But slowly but surely, this guy just got better and better and
better. There’s a lot of times where I was like, ‘He’s not beating
that guy.’ Wrong! He beat the f—k out of that guy. He did that
multiple times… Now to see him as the champion, I think he’s one of
the guys that’s improved drastically the most. Truly amazing. Great
journey.”