Jorge Masvidal and Nate Diaz put on a heck of a show for their BMF title challenge at UFC 244. "Gamebred" won, but how much did he make?
The fight game's an unforgiving sport, just ask Conor McGregor about the memes that cropped up after his definitive loss to Khabib Nurmagomedov. While there are tons of fighters out there who claim to be "the baddest" or "the best," very rarely do people live up to that hype or persona that they portray to the world.
Nate Diaz and Jorge Masvidal do, which is probably why a special "BMF" belt was made for their UFC 244 bout, which earned both the organization, and the fighters, a lot of money. But just how much did they make?
After Nate Diaz had an amazing showing against former UFC Lightweight Champion and perennial threat Anthony "Showtime" Pettis, he floated the idea of fighting Jorge Masvidal for the honor of earning the title of "Baddest Motherf---ker." Masvidal, who was in attendance after delivering the fastest KO in UFC history against former Olympic wrestler and Bellator/One FC welterweight champ, Ben Askren, smiled and nodded, seemingly excited about this idea.
Dana White called Jorge Masvidal "fighter of the year" for 2019.
Jorge recently scored a stunning KO victory against Darren Till, who is so big he now competes at Middleweight and formerly fought for the belt against Tyron Woodley. Then that flying knee knockout of Ben Askren pretty much cemented him as the most talked about welterweight fighter on the UFC roster. That, coupled with his "no BS" attitude, love for knocking out his opponents, and disdain for boring, "lay and pray" pugilists, instantly made him a fan favorite.
His bout with Ben included a lot of trash talk, most of it from Ben himself. Many UFC fans weren't keen on Askren after he won what felt like a questionable stoppage victory against Robbie Lawler. Ben's dismissive and cocky attitude has made him a lot of enemies in the MMA community, so people were tickled pink when they discovered that Jorge was planning on opening the fight with the flying knee that he drilled over and over again. And it worked, only five seconds into the fight.
The BMF Title Belt.
The fight between Jorge and Nate is something that sounds like a couple of middle school kids came up with, and it's undeniably awesome. The UFC actually made it official by creating a 1 of 1 BMF belt and then Jorge suggested that the Rock be the one to put it on the winner, and The People's Champion, Dwayne Johnson, actually came to Madison Square Garden to make it happen. The snowball effect of this idea two fighters had, who were fan favorites, that turned a card into a special event was truly magical.
