Jorge Masvidal wants to settle his old beef with Leon Edwards inside the Octagon.
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.”
