Jorge Masvidal Shares How BRUTAL Bare Knuckle Fighting Really Was

Hey, I do want to go back to this bare-knuckle stuff, all right? Because I've always wanted, like, as basketball players, we walk into an arena, we're not worried about certain things happening, right? Win or lose, by the way, you could get injured, whatever it is. But your mentality when you walk in there, like you talked about, even different than UFC, at least at UFC you know who you're fighting. Yeah. You have time to plan for that, you actually game plan. You talk about bare-knuckle fighting, you didn't even know who you're fighting. Like, what's your, where's your headspace at when you're walking in that thing? With Richard Dye trying, he's trying to get to his destination. And, you know, it's also that young bravado, like, you guys when you were coming up, and the guys above you, right, that are in the league, and you're like, yeah, they're good, they're nice, they're nasty, but I'm better than them. And I'm going to show it. I'm actually going to put in the work, I'm going to get in there, and I'm going to show that these guys got the weak sauce, and I'm the real deal. And it's like the same thing with me when I'm watching the undercards of Kimbo, right? And I'm looking at the guys that are fighting the level, I'm like, I don't give a, on my worst day, I don't give a who they, and they don't bring out Jackie Tang and ----. I got all these, and I've seen everybody on this thing, because this is all I do. I don't watch sports. I don't, like, watch TV or nothing. All I do is just combat. And I'm watching Kimbo's fights, or I'm watching kickboxing in Japan, or I'm watching, like, wrestling. So I'm watching these guys. I'm like, and I'm already competing at this time, you know, since an amateur. As a kid in different disciplines, I'm like, bro, I got this. I don't care who they call. As long as it's not Jackie Tang and Bruce Lee, I got this. Those are the only two. I'm like, all right, no, no, dear, no. I'm lying. Also, the Daywalker. Won't **** with the Daywalker. Wesley Snipes, bro. Oh, yeah, Wesley ain't no bad boy. And Blade, you can't. Wesley ain't a bad boy. Blade, Jackie Tang, and Bruce Lee, I won't even look at them, bro. I got to follow it up, though, because then you walk in there, there's like, obviously, in UFC, there's times, there's rounds. Y'all just fought until someone just gave up? That one, yeah. And that's the rule set wasn't clear. I remember kind of first going in. I remember because it was like a 10 minute round or something. 10 minute round. But then it was back to the regular, just go to somebody gives up, which is, I kind of like that as well, you know, like, let's just shoot it, you know? Yeah, I kind of like that as well. Yeah, and they told me about that. And I was like, you know what? Let's just do it like that. So if I get into a groove, I could just stay on that groove. Not like pause, break, you know? So I started preparing myself for the time because they gave me a good time to prepare for that maybe like two, three months that they had told me, look, this is how it's going to be, just go to somebody drops. And I was like, all right, I'm going to start working out like that. So I started first getting to like 30 minutes on the back straight with no break. Then I would like take a break and do like another five minutes and take a break and do another five. And then I'd be like, all right, I had enough for the day. Then I started increasing. I started getting to like 45 minutes straight with no break. And then I'll take a break and then I do like two more sprints, like another five minute break and another five minute. And this was a train of this. You just want this brand? No, no, this is me going to the gym. And my my coaches were Cuban right at the time. And they're defected from Cuba. And they had like very strict guys, you know, like a like no, you know, you're going to be here in time. You show up on time. A very strict system. And they they were very against the band, you know, they didn't really like it. And the place I was going to and stuff, they were like, no, you're not meant for that. You're meant for trading. You know, it was kind of like I'm the hush, you know. And then my coaches found out. But like much later, because when that fight took place, they didn't release it about a year and a half years after something like that. So when it came out and my coaches were like, you didn't tell us you did. What are you doing here? Wildman, what is going on? Is that what we're training for? Yeah, he's like, you know, situations arose and, you know, it wasn't like a problem or nothing. But I just I did that for the first one for the second one. I kind of let him know, you know, this was going to happen and blah, blah, blah. So I ain't trying to, you know, because these are different locations. But this was happening down south. I'm from Liberty City. That first one right there is right off I-95. Go to the first one. It's this laundromat right here. This one, this is not far from Liberty City. It's not. It's right behind this laundromat. It's still there to this day. Construction guy. We got on his jacket. Yeah, everybody was at his home from work. Yeah. He didn't see his wife waiting on him. Dinner getting cold. Yeah. He watching you whoop this man's ass. How old are you? No, this one was in the northwest. Just about to turn 18, brother. I ain't pocket watching. Yeah. You know, I would never pocket watch. But how much was y'all making money doing this? Y'all making a couple dollars, right? Yeah, yeah, yeah. We're making dollars. Okay, all right. That's good. It all made sense. This man gave everything he had that day. It was a hot day. I was just on a mission, man. I wasn't going to take no for an answer. And what people don't understand is after this, y'all was talking. Y'all shook it out. It was all love. Like, it was respect. And he was a dog because he was tired and hurt. And he would still just keep taking sprints at me. It's just my endurance was a little better than him on that day. You know, I was able to keep stepping on that gas right here. He's already, like, feeling. I'm like, all right, another body shot. Chop him down. So on the way to this, like, you know what I'm saying? After this, like, what was the steps in the process as you move into the MMA lane? Like, what goes on and what happens after this? So by the time these videos come out, I'm pro already, right? Because like I said, they take a little bit of time to come out. And now it's kind of like a good thing because the video blew up. I remember it helps, but it also didn't. It didn't in a way helped with the fans and stuff for a long time. And I never understood why. I just would have thought it would have helped. But now I understood because at that time they were trying to get away from that. The MMA was like a barbaric or bare knuckle sport. So journalists and promoters were like, oh, this is some street thug, some street fighter. And it actually with promoters and with, like, media outlets, they kind of shined away from me and wouldn't give me, like, the spotlight or wouldn't give me the mic or wouldn't give me the amount of, you know, let's say interview time that I was supposed to get for, like, headlining these events or co-headlining these events, you know. So it backfired on me. But the fans, it was like a coat lock falling. It was the greatest thing ever. The fans were like, holy smokes. When they put it together, like, you're the guy that's in the UFC. You should do the backyard, same guy. And it was like, those are my fans, win or lose. Like, they don't, they just want me to go out there, get in shape and give them my all to take somebody else out. You know, those are the fans that always been rocking with me. And I just been blessed. I always thank Kimbo because if it wasn't for that, I wouldn't have that, like, hardcore solid base, you know. But a lot of, like, the headlines when I would lose and stuff from big publications would be, like, street fighter gets exposed, loses decision and things like that. Oh, man, you know. But the fans love me, so I didn't give a. Looking back at it, we always talk about it when we have people on and even in our lives, like, welcome to the NBA moment, right? You live, you live your life to get to the NBA. And then you get there and you say that whether you believe it or not, a guy dunks on you or does something to you. What was your welcome to the UFC moment? Like, were you like, oh, OK. The one where he whooped that man's ass in five seconds. That was his welcome. He had a welcome moment in reverse. He whooped some ass real quick. Five seconds. You know, I had knocked out a couple, you know, high ranking guys and some really, really good guys before that. You know, not my first fight because I won my first fight. Nobody cared. I won my second fight. Nobody cared. I'm not going to say maybe that more of the world started paying attention to me on a broader scale to Donald Cowboy Chiron. Yeah, you know, he was like, I watched that fight. And when we fought, it was on Fox 3, Big Fox. Remember that? They did it for a short stint where Fox was doing them. And man, we generated tons of views. I don't remember. I remember the exact numbers, but it was like five million views live. You know, something crazy like that. And we were the co-main event, you know, and that was really nuts. That one really helped me out and I performed well. And I think that one definitely was like my, I'm here. UFC to stay for a moment. They hadn't let me really fight too many ranked guys before that fight. Then after that, I was fighting always ranked guys. But before that, they were kind of like making it like a good old boy club. They weren't letting me fight the top five, top ten guys. Besides, was politics even a little bit back then? There was a lot more politics. You know, it's still a lot of politics right now. But, you know, Dana says it all the time with these rankings, like these rankings completely don't want air to take over. Like back then, man, the rankings were like, you know, it's like a good old boy system, like kind of who you knew and who, when you could finally fight one of these coveted guys in the top 15 spot. If not, they would just keep you outside in your pain. And it's like a bad position to be in. Even if you were beating like world-class guys or had beaten some of these guys in the past, it was like a weird, weird thing. You know, so it took a while for me to break through. And that was like that moment where the UFC saw the worth in me as well. You gotta not only pay this guy, but better take care of the world. You talked about that bare knuckle fight being one of the toughest fights you ever fought. Yeah, definitely. But going into just the Octagon and UFC, which one of those fights in the UFC was one of your toughest fights? I remember the Darren Till fight. That was a tough fight because he dropped me early on. He might have hit me with like a shot or two when I was on the ground. And then as I stood back up to that round, he landed some very good jabs. And he has like naturally very heavy-handed guy. I wasn't seeing his jab. I hit him with a couple more lefts and stuff. But I remember getting hit a lot. I haven't been hit this much ever. You know, like what the f*** going on? You know, those good shots. And then slowly but surely, I started just getting this timing. Like right around minute number four of the first round is where everything just made sense. It was when like... Matrix, slow down, slow down. Like for you guys, I guess when a certain something happens, like, oh, I wasn't flicking my wrist enough. You start hitting the heaters. That's how it was. But until that moment, it was like a tough fight. Like I was thinking in the back of my mind, man, this is tough for me. Then the wrestling ones, the guys that just want to wrestle. It was always tough, you know. Even though you don't take no abuse. It's just like you prepare your whole camp to get this guy off and be able to get away. So physically, you get like pain, you know. Even a guy, even if they might not hit you a lot. So those also suck. It's more like on a pride level. Nah, that wrestling is real. If you're good at it, it's like 60% of the fight right there. So standing up and throwing hands or is wrestling more fatiguing? As a normal spectator, I'm watching it. If it's on the ground and they're wrestling, is that more fatiguing than just standing up throwing hands? So one guy's on top of another guy, he's usually defending. That's energy and the guy on bottom. If they're both on top and I'm going for like takedowns, you're defending takedowns, this is the most energy. Because this, you know, and especially the more, some guys are more tense, but the more experience you get, you know, you just kind of like relax, you snap. You kind of relax, you snap. I used to go to the fights and I used to go watch Rumble when he fought Cormier. And I used to always, I used to always go for Rumble, but Dan used to always take him to the ground. Every time. He used to always take him to the ground. Once he got Rumble on that ground. You don't want that, you know, you don't want to feel that heat, you know. He had anesthesia everywhere on his feet, on his knees, wherever Rumble hit you, you were going to go night-night. That's where I was going to go. He said he had anesthesia everywhere, wherever he hit you. Elbows, shins, feet. That guy would put anybody to sleep. And he was going to fight John Jones. I remember the fight just in Nepal. And that was the one that I really wanted to see. That would have been a hell of a fight. Hell of a fight. We've got another exciting week of Hoops coming up. I've got the perfect way to get you even closer to the action on the court. Right now, all new DraftKings customers who bet just $5 will get $150 in bonus bets if your bet wins. Just download the DraftKings Sportsbook app and sign up using my promo code OGs. The crown is yours. That's right. New customers get $150 in bonus bets if your bet wins after betting just $5. And don't forget to stay in on the action and use your $150 in bonus bets on DraftKings Same Game Parleys for a shot at an even bigger payout. Combine multiple bets together from the same game. If sports betting is not available in your state, don't worry. You can still join in on all the fun with DraftKings Daily Fantasy and have the shot to win cash prizes. Download the DraftKings Sportsbook app now. New customers use my promo code OGs and bet just $5 on any wager and get $150 in bonus bets if your bet wins. That's promo code OGs only at DraftKings Sportsbook.