Jorge Masvidal made a huge statement on Saturday in the main of UFC Fight Night London and now he wants a title shot.
Masvidal took the best betting favorite Darren Till had to offer, withstood several cracking left hands and eventually knocked Till into orbit. After a relatively uneventful night of action, Masvidal’s thrilling knockout of Till sent the MMA world into a frenzy because it seemed like it wouldn’t happen. Masvidal had been landing clean punches on “The Gorilla’s” head on numerous occasions, but none of them seemed to faze the larger Brit at all.
“Darren is so tough,” Masvidal said after his triumph. “Before I dropped him, I hit him with some bombs and the dude just smiled at me like, like I do to other people.”
Masvidal’s knockout eventually came, though.
Masvidal cracked Till with a powerful left hook clean on the jaw and the Englishman’s knees buckled. Masvidal missed a follow-up right hook, but his next punch – another left hook – didn’t. It exploded on Till’s jaw, knocking him flat on his back, out cold, ending the fight at 3:05 of the second.
“It’s a cherry on top that I got the victory but it’s the fight that I really love,” he said. “I got dropped in the first and that made me wake up. I wanted to get him back immediately. I love the scrap.”
Masvidal’s excellent knockout win nabbed him a “Performance of the Night” and “Fight of the Night” bonus, a total of an additional $100,000 in his bank account. However, that extra cash isn’t the only thing Masvidal wants; the Cuban-American believes he’s next in line for a crack at the UFC’s welterweight title.
“I want to fight for the belt,” he declared. “Darren only has one loss and that is to the champion. I’ve got a huge body of work in this division and this corporation. It’s my time and I need that belt.”
Masvidal wasn’t available for comment at the post-fight press conference because he was involved in an altercation with co-main event winner Leon Edwards, who called out the winner of Masvidal-Till after his split decision win over Gunnar Nelson. A few seconds of video of the skirmish circulated on social media, where Edwards apparently said something to Masvidal while Masvidal was being interviewed by ESPN. From there, “Gamebred” walked up to Edwards and threw a multi-punch combo before several officials intervened.