Jorge Masvidal on Conor McGregor: "I would have punched him right dead in his f***ing mouth"

Masvidal says he would have hit McGregor when he went down hurt against Max Holloway, and has sat down with Ben Askren, the man he knocked out in five seconds.

Jorge Masvidal says he would have punched Conor McGregor when the Irishman went down injured against Max Holloway at UFC 329.

"I would have punched him right dead in his f***ing mouth," Masvidal said in an interview with Jake Noecker, calling Holloway "the nice guy". McGregor, he said, "was trying to kick Max" in the head "and take his head off and it didn't work out. Okay, it's a consequences of fighting."

McGregor, in his first fight since breaking his leg against Dustin Poirier in July 2021, attempted a flying kick in the opening seconds of his rematch with Holloway in Las Vegas on 11 July, landed awkwardly and injured his right knee. The fight lasted 69 seconds, and McGregor had knee surgery in August.

Asked to choose between McGregor at International Fight Week 2027 and Birmingham's Leon Edwards, Masvidal picked Edwards because that fight is more likely to happen. Of McGregor, he said: "Is he actually going to fight? Is he actually going to do it and stuff like that? I don't know." He added: "At this point right now, I would say Leon."

He doubts McGregor would take the fight anyway. "This guy wouldn't even show up to fight f***ing Michael Chandler," Masvidal said. "I'll break him. I just know mentally I'll break him." McGregor was due to fight Chandler in June 2024, but the fight was called off when he broke a toe in training.

Masvidal was booked to fight Edwards once before, at UFC 269 in December 2021, but withdrew injured. In March 2019 he had knocked out Liverpool's Darren Till in the second round of the UFC London main event.

His next fight after Till was against Ben Askren at UFC 239 in Las Vegas in July 2019, which Masvidal won with a flying knee after five seconds, still the fastest knockout in UFC history. The two have now sat down together with Full Send MMA.

"No one threw a flying knee prior to you the way you did it," Askren told him. "I'd never ever seen anyone do it like that before." Later he said: "And so my brain obviously misread it and then you're done."

Masvidal said he had studied Askren closely. "I was watching you since your sophomore year in college," he said. "I looked at everything that you did, good and bad." Of the knee itself: "I wanted you to feel that I'm like in right hand range and then bam."

Askren, who confirmed he had clinically died four times and said "I was asleep for 38 days", invited Masvidal to a baptism, which Masvidal called "one of the most humbling" experiences of his life. "So, brother, I'm going to your academy," Masvidal said. "You going to get me ready for the next fight." Askren replied: "Absolutely."

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