Jorge Masvidal earlier spoke about how the most he has earned from a fight is $5 million. In a recent interview with VLAD TV, he further revealed which fight it was and how the UFC agreed to pay him so much.
UFC and its chief Dana White are well-known for not paying fighters well. The Las Vegas-based promotion is also facing a legal battle with several former fighters regarding low pay. Amidst this, Masvidal convinced them to pay him millions of dollars for a fight during the difficult situations ensued by the coronavirus pandemic.
Love him or hate him, the Business Man Jorge Masvidal is P4P the best!
Gamebred took home $5 Million for his short-notice fight at #UFC251 against Kamaru Usman, he wouldn’t have come close to that million dollar mark if it wasn’t for the mayhem he made on fighters not getting… pic.twitter.com/3OeZeKDSO2
— Nikhil Chauhan (@nickiiciao) April 29, 2024
Gamebred earned $5 million for fighting Kamaru Usman at UFC 251 in July 2020. Even former UFC Heavyweight Champion Francis Ngannou has never had such a huge payday in the UFC. The Predator left the UFC because he was not being paid well.
At the time, Masvidal was outspoken about how the UFC was not paying fighters enough. Let’s take a look at how the UFC agreed to pay him so much.
Jorge Masvidal outlines the situation in which UFC agreed to his biggest payday
Masvidal explained how he had his first run-in with The Nigerian Nightmare in early 2020 during a radio show. At the time, Usman was the UFC Welterweight Champion and Jorge Masvidal was recently crowned the BMF champion after defeating Nate Diaz at UFC 244. Their confrontation was well-documented and Masvidal claimed that, at this point, no fight was scheduled.
The UFC entered into negotiations with Masvidal after the confrontation and they were left in a stalemate. Gamebred’s demands were to receive a higher percentage of the PPV share but UFC was not willing to provide it. This was around five or six weeks before the fight.
(Watch from 02:45 minutes)
However, after the coronavirus pandemic struck the world, UFC was desperate to sign a fighter for Usman to defend his title against. Gamebred received the call from the UFC just six days before the fight but he was up for it only if his demands were met.
Masvidal claimed he had to cut 20 lbs in six days. He said, “Now, the UFC calls me and they need somebody that can fill in a six-day notice, fly across the world, and cut 20 lbs.”
The UFC 251 event was scheduled to take place in Abu Dhabi. Masvidal believes he is the only man who could have taken up such a fight. “There’s only one motherf***er in the whole world that could get that call for the bat signal and that’s this dude here. But, I had to get paid and I had to get paid very f*cking handsomely for doing this so they gave in to all my demands that I had.”
According to Masvidal’s demands, he was set up to earn $5 million as 1.3 million PPVs of the event were sold.
Jorge Masvidal believes he could have won the welterweight title if he had time to prepare
Masvidal believes if he had enough time to prepare, he would have done much better in the fight.
He said, “I always sign up to fight for titles, you know, and maybe if I had those seven weeks to prepare I would have done a lot better. I would have walked away with that belt because I went five rounds with him and I never got hurt.”
On This Day in 2021, Kamaru Usman put Jorge Masvidal to sleep at #UFC261 💥
Describe Usman’s title reign in one word ⬇️
— MMA Orbit (@mma_orbit) April 24, 2024
Usman defeated Masvidal at UFC 251 via unanimous decision. The Nigerian Nightmare is one of the greatest welterweight champions in the promotion. To go head-to-head against him on such short notice and fight for the full five rounds was extremely commendable on Masvidal’s behalf. However, Masvidal lost to Usman again at UFC 261. This time, it was a KO win for Usman in the second round.