Jorge Masvidal lost to UFC welterweight champion Kamaru Usman in UFC 251 main event.
Masvidal took the fight on short notice after Gilbert Burns tested positive for coronavirus and couldn’t fight “The Nigerian Nightmare”.
Even though Usman vs. Masvidal was the fight everybody was looking for, the fight didn’t meet expectations, with “Gamebred” not managing to cause serious problems for the champion who was the aggressor in all the five rounds.
But the circumstances can’t be ideal every time, especially when such an opportunity comes across. Still, Jorge believes he can do better against Kamar Usman if he gets a full training camp prior to the bout.
“I hate coming up short. I ain’t going to make no excuses,” Masvidal said at the UFC 251 post-fight press conference. “He was the better man tonight. There were some areas where I didn’t give him enough credit and there were some areas I felt with a better training camp I could definitely surpass him. I think I showed a lot of my wrestling on six days’ notice that I’m not too easy to take down or hold down on the ground.
“I made a lot of mistakes. I tried to fight in spots where I didn’t think my gas tank was the greatest. Right when I would get loose, he would clinch me up and take it right back into his world. So, I’m not going to take anything away from him. He won fair and square. I will do whatever it takes to get back in front of that man and compete again and get my hand raised.”
“I’ve got a good formula in my head though on how to beat him the next time,” Masvidal said. “I thought I had the formula. Now I know the formula — it takes a lot of gas tank, a lot of conditioning, a lot more wrestling rounds with high-level guys. So I definitely got a square root on how to beat this guy.”
Source: www.sherdog.com
