Kamaru Usman Claims Jorge Masvidal Turned Down Fight At UFC 249

UFC welterweight champion, Kamaru Usman took to social media and wasted no time in calling out his Cuban rival, Jorge Masvidal for allegedly declining to fight him at UFC 249.

The talk of the highly anticipated match-up between Usman and Masvidal arose once again at the possible fallout of UFC 249’s main event due to Khabib Nurmagomedov’s travel complications in Russia due to the coronavirus pandemic. ‘The Nigerian Nightmare’ wished to rescue UFC 249 by offering himself to fight ‘Gamebred’ as an alternate headliner, however it is now confirmed that these two won’t be fighting come April 18th.

While both Usman and Masvidal claimed to accept the fight offer to compete as the new main event for UFC 249, the welterweight king took to social media (as transcribed by MMA Fighting) to address the underlying situation from his point of view, including a conversation with UFC president, Dana White.

“I did what I needed to do. I knew there was a ton of guys on this card, a lot of guys that aren’t making that much money and haven’t fought in a long, long time and they needed to fight. So you know what I did? I called Dana White and I said ‘Dana, you know what, I want to save that event, I want Masvidal.’ Word for word. I swore on everything. Texted Dana, said I want Masvidal, I’m going to save this event.”

After Usman’s interest in being the saviour of the UFC’s next event, the promotion set out to get in touch with ‘Gamebred’. Masvidal’s manager, Abe Kawa was unable to track down his client and said they weren’t able to locate him for whatever reason.

In the midst of the manhunt for the viral welterweight contender, Kamaru was cutting weight to make 170lbs in a short notice span of less than three weeks, unsure of the possibility that the fight would take place. Weighing in at 194lbs, Usman told his management to give the UFC another 24 hours to track down Masvidal because he really wanted the fight to happen.

“24 hours go by and they say well he doesn’t need to fight, doesn’t want to fight,” Usman said. “He hasn’t really been training, that he’s not going to take the fight. That he’s too fat.

“He’s been drinking too much of that drink of his that he’s drinking. He’s too fat. He can’t fight. I said what? I thought he was a goon, this and that — they said he can’t fight.”

As soon as word had broke out that the UFC lightweight champ, Khabib had to potentially drop out of UFC 249’s headliner due to travel complications, Masvidal took to Twitter saying he was free April 18th. Kamaru however, fired back.

“Today, the news breaks, the first thing these guys do, jump on Twitter, try to clout chase, try to get fans on their side ‘Oh I’m free April 18th.’ No, you’re not free,” Usman said. “If you’re free, call Dana White right now.

“They’re not free. He’s running his mouth because he’s trying to clout chase right now. They’re talking about Usman said no. Usman is saying yes, right now. We can still make the fight. They don’t want that fight.”

Regardless of saving the main event of 249, Usman took to Twitter hours late (as transcribed by MMA Junkie) to state that he had become ecstatic at the thought of fighting Masvidal with no crowd in the stands.

“The real reason I wanted the fight is because this guy is so much hype, he understands, he knows he can’t hold a candle to who I am, to what I can do,” Usman said. “He knows that. This guy is all hype. He relies on the hype. He relies on all the casual fans to jump on the bandwagon. That’s what he’s relying on. But I knew that fight would not have people in the stands. It would be empty.

“We don’t need the crowd. We don’t need anybody. You know why guys? Because I want you guys to hear what I’m going to say in there to him. I want you guys to hear every blow. I want you guys to hear once I take him down, every punch, every elbow, every ground and pound strike I throw. I wanted you guys to hear him squeal like a pig, like the little b*tch that he is.”

Masvidal’s manager Kawa joined in on the conversation by stating on Instagram Live that the UFC had approached them about headlining UFC 249 as a replacement.

“If there’s one thing you know about Jorge, he doesn’t have to lie, he’s got no reason to lie, he’s got no issues. We have accepted the Usman fight twice now. Two times. Once for New York City (UFC 244). We all know how that ended up. Usman said no, he didn’t want to make that fight happen.

“Now we accepted again and he’s saying we turned it down. That’s a damn lie. We got the phone call. We were asked. We knew this was coming. We said absolutely, let’s go.”

Usman however denied Kawa’s claims.

“It’s his management team tweeting for him but guess what? When you let your management team tweet for you, you condone that behaviour.”

“This guy’s a fraud, he’s a phony. That’s why I wanted to put him on blast.”

Although, the duo of ‘Gamebred’ and ‘The Nigerian Nightmare’ will not be clashing at UFC 249, Dana White has stated that he is looking to book the two welterweights for International Fight in Las Vegas at UFC 252, in July.

Who do you believe is telling the truth, Kamaru Usman or Jorge Masvidal?


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