Jorge Masvidal On Canelo Alvarez: I Feel Like I Could Hurt This Dude
When Jorge Masvidal scored a brutal five-second knockout win against Ben Askren in July, his stock flew up overnight. But when he stopped Nate Diaz earlier this month at UFC 244 for the BMF title, he solidified his status as a bona fide superstar in the world of MMA.
And with more notoriety, comes bigger perks, and a bigger platform to speak from. Which Masvidal took full advantage of at the UFC 244 post fight press conference. It was here where ‘Gamebred’ first called out the four-division boxing world champion, Canelo Alvarez.
“If Canelo wants to get his ass kicked, that’s a fight I’ll take,” Masvidal told the media at Madison Square Garden, New York.
Speaking on the Dan Le Batard Show on ESPN (as transcribed by TheMacLife.com), Masvidal opened up on why he thinks he’s a tough matchup for Canelo.
“I consider myself ten times the athlete [Canelo] is just because of MMA in general. All the strength, speed and power you have to generate – to throw one kick is like throwing ten right hands,” Masvidal confidently said.
Masvidal further expounded the idea of why an MMA fighter is a more well-rounded competitor than a boxing professional.
“The energy it takes to wrestle and pick somebody up in the air … boxing’s just your weight, nobody cares. If I could shift those energy blocks and bring them down to boxing where I’m throwing eighty or ninety punches a round, I feel I could hurt this dude.”
However, Masvidal pointed out that if Canelo would agree to meet him in a mixed martial arts match, then the four-division champion would have a hard time to match him skill-set by skill-set.
“I definitely agree that if [Alvarez] was to go to MMA, it wouldn’t be a challenge because I’ve thrown 10,000 left high-kicks in a month and he’s never done one. It’s kind of the same thing to boxing, where if I’ve thrown a million jabs, then he’s thrown ten million, because that’s all his focus.
“That being said, there’s still an element that I could put his ass to sleep … maybe I don’t hit harder, but I’m definitely bigger. I could definitely make a statement and even it out for MMA, my sport. There [are] still things in boxing that are a part of boxing. I just feel I could beat him up in some areas. Does he have a better jab and left hook than me? Yeah, of course. But there’s still elements where I could make it awkward for him, just like Conor did to Mayweather. Those are the mountains I like to scale. If I’m going into boxing, I want the best guy they got.”
How do you think Jorge Masvidal would fare against Canelo Alvarez?
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