For a brief moment, it looked as though Jorge Masvidal and Jake Paul might be on a collision course for a boxing match. But that potential battle wasn’t even close to actually happening.
The feud between the fighters began after Masvidal sided with Tyron Woodley as the former UFC champ prepared to face Paul in a boxing match of his own. Masvidal had actually briefly worked with Paul prior to this booking to help Paul prepare for his fight against Ben Askren, who was a joint opponent he and Masvidal had.
Masvidal and Paul exchanged a lot of harsh words through interviews and across social media, but it seemed like there was no chance of a fight between them in mind.
masvidal told paul during an appearance on Bachelor’s Podcast. “They shut down things like that.
“I don’t think you know how far we’ve really come from doing something. That’s why it doesn’t happen very often when you’re a full contractor, especially someone like me. They’re very picky.”
Rarely has the UFC worked with fighters to compete in any competing combat sports promotion outside of Conor McGregor for a chance to take on Floyd Mayweather in a boxing match in 2017.
Former heavyweight champ Francis Ngannou has been locked out of any potential boxing fights as he attempts to negotiate a new UFC deal before landing free agency and eventually signing with the PFL. Under his new contract, Ngannou is free to pursue boxing, with the PFL remaining entirely out of his MMA career.
Ideally, Masvidal would love the opportunity to test himself in boxing, but even after announcing his retirement in April, the UFC still has to give him permission to do anything else since he’s still under contract with them.
“Sure, I will be boxing,” Masvidal said. “This is something I wanted to do, especially as I started to progress more in my skill set. I have a professional boxing fight, which happened 14 or 15 years ago. Boxing was like my first love.
“So I would definitely have a boxing match if the UFC would let me. They should give me permission. They should be like, ‘Yeah, go do whatever you want.’ If not, you can’t have any boxing match.”
While his boxing aspirations may remain on hold forever, Masvidal offered his take on how former opponent Nate Diaz might have done when he clashed with Paul in August.
Diaz got under contract with the UFC this past September, then did shows in free agency before finally landing a deal for a boxing match with Paul that will be jointly promoted by their labels, Real Fight Inc. and Most Valuable Promotions.
Now he will get a lucrative pay day to fight with Paul.
Masvidal believes Diaz will make the transition to boxing easy.
“Nate is sure to have the expertise on you,” Masvidal told Paul. “He’s got insane stamina. I think the opening round would tell me a lot. He’s got great cardio, and I think, especially in boxing, he has to transition easy.
“I think of all the classes you can have in martial arts, wrestling being one of them, and boxing, [etc.,] Boxing is a very natural thing [Diaz]. I think he would be a decent boxer.”