Daniel Cormier isn’t sure Jorge Masvidal should come back.
The 39-year-old former ‘BMF’ champion retired from MMA in April of 2023 after losing to Gilbert Burns at UFC 287, but returned to combat sports this past July when he faced Nate Diaz in a boxing match that Diaz ultimately won. But that loss seemed to motivate Masvidal, who announced earlier this week he’s in talks with the UFC to return to the promotion in the near future.
However, UFC Hall of Famer and commentator Cormier questions if Masvidal should return.
“Jorge Masvidal should be commended for doing what he did to reach the levels of stardom that he did, because when you look at his career as a whole, you really do see a guy that spent the vast majority of his prime, the vast majority of his youth, as a middling fighter,” Cormier said on his YouTube channel. “He just was. It is what it is. That’s nothing to be ashamed of. It’s what it was...
“Look at the names on his résumé. At the end of the day, when you look at the career as a whole, it boils down to one year where Jorge Masvidal made you guys care, and it made him a star. But my question to you now is: Do you still care? Because that’s what he’s banking on...
“He has lost his last four MMA fights, [and] he lost a boxing match. He said he’ll come back, starch somebody and the UFC would be begging him to fight for a championship. My question to you is, do you care now? Do you care like you did in 2019? Do you care like you did when he was on that amazing run when he made himself from a guy that was middling, from a guy that was a bit of a journeyman, into a main event attraction? He and Kamaru Usman sold a boatload of pay-per-views. But do you care today, in 2024, to see Jorge Masvidal come back and fight someone?”
As Cormier noted, Masvidal came to superstardom late into his career. A veteran of over 50 professional fights, Masvidal broke out in 2019 with wins over Darren Till and Ben Askren, the latter being the fastest knockout in UFC history, before then winning the inaugural ‘BMF’ title over Diaz at UFC 244. That ended up being the final victory of his MMA career, at least thus far, as “Gamebred” then dropped four straight bouts before retiring.
Given that run of form and his age, plus the nature of his stardom, Cormier simply isn’t sure Masvidal draws a huge amount of interest from fans right now.
“In 2019 he did something I’ve never seen someone do in fighting before,” Cormier said. “...This is a guy that started the beginning of his UFC career not very good, and nobody cared. But he ultimately made himself into a main event guy. Do we care to see him today? Or do we care to see him today against someone that’s a big name? Is that the only way you’d care? Because to me, if Jorge Masvidal comes back, it has to be against someone that’s a fun fight. Because right now, he’s not fighting as competitively as he was...
“I can tell you right now, if Nate Diaz were to say, ‘I’m coming back,’ people would get excited. Are Nate Diaz and Jorge Masvidal held in the same regard?”
Whether fans will care remains to be seen but Masvidal certainly seems to think they will. He threw out the possibility of fighting Michael Chandler, should his theoretical fight with Conor McGregor not come to pass, but mostly he’s happy to fight anyone so long as the paycheck is correct. And for all Cormier’s uncertainty around whether Masvidal draws interest anymore, the former two-division champion admits should it happen, he will certainly be tuning in, he just sort of hopes it won’t happen.
“I’d watch him fight, absolutely... But my question is, do you care? ... He’s 39 years old now,” Cormier said. “His best days seem to be behind him, lost four in a row. Can he recreate what he did before?...
“I believe with the work he was doing outside of the octagon, his promotion seems to be doing well, and I was happy to see him walk away.”
