Jorge Masvidal decided to opt for retirement from the UFC after losing his bout against Gilbert Burns at UFC 287. Following this, he went on to fight Nate Diaz inside a squared ring, under the banner of Real Fight Inc. But he didn’t seem content with his retirement. About a year after hanging up his gloves in the UFC, ‘Gamebred’ has now hinted at his return to the Octagon. 

As Masvidal gears up for his fight promotion’s next event in November, he raised the entropy of the fighting community with a major announcement. In an exclusive interview with EssentiallySports’ Andrew Whitelaw, Masvidal revealed his plans to return to the UFC and compete once again. 

It all began when the ES representative summarized the former UFC champion’s achievements. He pointed out that Masvidal has fought in street fights, competed for the BMF title, fought in the UFC at the highest level, founded a fight promotion, and wrote a book. “What’s left on your bucket list, man?” Whitelaw asked. 

Masvidal put Dana White on high alert as he revealed, “Brother, I’m coming back harder than ever. Been training, ready for a minute. Boy’s in shape. I’m gonna come back at the end of this year, next year. Opponent, time… we don’t know yet, but someone is going [mimics getting a punch to the chin] to sleep, brother. We’re in here, man. We’re training. I want to get back, I want to compete, you know.” 

This urge to fight led him to take on Nate Diaz in a boxing bout. Jorge Masvidal gave it his all, but it was Diaz who won via majority decision. Being a mixed martial artist who relied on kicks and grappling techniques along with punches, boxing challenged him to move out of his comfort zone. But it also reignited his fire to fight in an MMA cage. 

Masvidal continued, “This boxing stuff really got me out of my, out of my comfort zone in different ways. And I just said, ‘Bro, I want to compete.’ And I was, I was moving right, I was doing good things, I was living a very routine life over there in Vegas. So, I just said, ‘Man, I gotta do this again. I gotta compete. I gotta go back.’ So, one thing led to another, and I was like, ‘Man, I’m fighting again bro. F–k this! I feel great! Let’s go!”

But talking about the future, ‘Gamebred’ had only one thing on his mind. And it was indeed Gamebred Bareknuckle MMA’s upcoming event.

Jorge Masvidal reveals his plans in an exclusive ES interview

Talking about his fight promotion, Masvidal couldn’t help but try to raise the hype around the upcoming event. He said, “Right now there’s only one thing on my mind- November 15th, the most brutal show on earth, tickets available at Ticketmaster.com, twelve UFC veterans, eleven fights. It’s nothing but action. And then after that, I’ll also think about who I’ll fight. But right now I kinda like to do one thing at a time. And right now it’s just the promotion hard as you can, get these guys as much exposure as we can.”

The main card would feature Guto Inocente and Marcos Brigagao in a heavyweight bout. Both of these men had a pretty impressive resume. ‘Street Jesus’ also pointed out that he planned on bringing Junior dos Santos into the arena. The matchmaking for Gamebred BMMA 8 left no stone unturned to impress the boss. He said, “So big shoutout to matchmaking on this f—ing card because it’s insane, it’s f—ing epic.”

Masvidal indeed believed that Gamebred BMMA 8 would be an event with the power to raise the fighting community’s excitement to a great extent. However, the former BMF champion’s probable return was what the MMA realm would be more interested in. While he has refused to fight Colby Covington, who do you think would he fight if he returns? Drop down to the comments below and let us know what you think.