Ultimate Fighting Championship welterweight titlist Kamaru Usman is far from impressed with Jorge Masvidal’s current winning streak.
In the past three outings, Masvidal has showed the MMA world that he is a legit contender for the title.
At UFC London, he stunned the home fans with an emphatic knockout of Darren Till.
Months after, the Miami, Florida native smashed all previous UFC records as he pulled off the fastest knockout in the promotion’s history, finishing Ben Askren just five seconds into the opening round of their UFC 239 welterweight clash.
Masvidal’s hot streak continued earlier this month when he emerged as the ‘baddest motherf***er’ in the UFC after a technical knockout win over Nate Diaz.
With this solid run, ‘Gamebred’ is poised to earn the next title shot, where he could face the eventual winner of the Usman vs Covington UFC 245 title fight.
But if the current welterweight champion were to asked, he believes Masvidal has still lots of work to do to win the 170-pound title.
Matter of Luck
In a recent interview with MMA Fighting, the Nigerian champ stressed there has been no change in Masvidal’s game despite racking up three big wins.
For Usman, Masvidal’s current win-streak was just a product of what he called ‘luck of the draw.’
“I wouldn’t say [I’ve been] impressed,” he told MMA Fighting.
“Because it’s Masvidal, nothing’s changed. He’s the same guy. He’s fought the same way forever. It’s just the luck of the draw. He’s getting that luck of the draw.”
“Let’s be honest, Darren Till dropped him in the first round of their fight, and let’s say if he didn’t land that punch [in the second round], how does that fight play out?”
“Had he not landed that knee [against Ben Askren]—and I’m not going to say it’s lucky because he drilled that—how does that fight play out? There’s a lot of questions to be answered.”
“I’ve yet to see him fight a full-on welterweight from start to finish and completely dominate them.”
“Then at that point I can say this is a different guy. But I think right now he’s riding the wave, and he’s got the luck of the draw on his side.”
Very Interested
Usman is set to defend his welterweight title next month against Colby Covington and he believes that even his challenger would be a tough nut to crack for Masvidal.
“I have never been in their training sessions, but I’m pretty sure we can kind of conclude how that went as far as [Masvidal and Covington] in the room training and what not,” Usman continued.
“Because when Masvidal has been through the wringer, or fought wrestlers who were somewhat tough, he had a problem with them.”
“You can only imagine what a guy that actually knows him and works with him everyday inside the room was doing to him.”
But if the UFC gives Masvidal the next shot at the title, Usman would be very interested with the match-up.
“He’s got a lot of hype right now, and he’s been in this sport for a long, long time.“
“But at the end of the day, does it really matter that you have all that hype if you never get to the pinnacle of the sport?”
“I like the fact that that he has all this hype. It brings a lot of eyes. So if he does make it to me and that fight is made, I would actually be very, very interested in that.”
(Featured Image Source: Instagram/ Kamaru Usman and Jorge Masvidal)