Jorge Masvidal maintains disinterest in Jake Paul boxing match — ‘He had a street team handing out free tickets’

Jorge Masvidal and Jake Paul are two of the more brash and outspoken personalities currently occupying the combat sports landscape. So it would only make sense that they would find themselves at odds eventually ...

Ahead of Paul’s boxing match with Ben Askren in April 2021, he requested the assistance of the top Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) Welterweight contender in Masvidal — a past opponent of Askren’s. Things started out friendly between the pair before inevitably dissolving as they often do in the fight game.

Paul has since fought and defeated former UFC Welterweight champion, Tyron Woodley, twice, a past American Top Team (ATT) teammate of Masvidal’s. The Paul vs. Woodley rematch took place in Dec. 2021, where Masvidal was in attendance for the sixth-round knockout (watch highlights).

Following the fight, Paul made several callouts of mixed martial arts (MMA) fighters, including Masvidal, who offered up a reply shortly after. Fast forward to the present and he still “Gamebred” doesn’t want to give Paul the time of day.

”I’ll fight him right now, you know, on my way to the gym,” Masvidal told The Fight Fan with Pete Hoffman. “But, I prepared my whole life to fight the best of the best. He’s not the best of the best.... I’m not doing charity. You’re selling 70,000 [pay-per-views], there’s nothing to talk about. He had a street team handing out free tickets at the event for people to go to the event....”

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CHAMPIONSHIP TRILOGY! Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) returns to The O2 in London England, on Sat., March 18, 2023, with newly-minted Welterweight kingpin, Leon Edwards, running it back with former 170-pound champion, Kamaru Usman, for a third (and likely final) time. In UFC 286’s pay-per-view (PPV) co-main event, all-action Lightweight knockout artists, Justin Gaethje and Rafael Fiziev, will lock horns with the winner inching closer to a future Lightweight title shot.

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Masvidal’s next time out will see him attempt to snap a two-fight losing skid after back-to-back defeats against current UFC titlist, Kamaru Usman. Next Saturday night (Mar. 5, 2022), Masvidal headlines UFC 272 in Las Vegas opposite his heated rival and former friend, Colby Covington. Masvidal’s last victory came at UFC 244 in Nov. 2019 against Nate Diaz (watch highlights).