Jorge Masvidal believes Nate Diaz's hometown fight worked against him in their boxing match on Saturday night.
The 10-round fight was surprisingly entertaining, with Masvidal losing by majority decision, with one judge calling it a draw and two others awarding it to Diaz by a landslide victory, one 97-93 and the other 98-92, which was more than enough for Diaz to win.
Naturally, Masvidal disagreed, especially considering the data showed he out-landed Diaz in total punches, not to mention power punches, throughout the fight.
“I'm sure the referee was influenced by the crowd,” Masvidal said in his post-fight press conference, “a lot of those punches were hitting the corner, so I was timing it. He threw three or four punches, missed, and I landed some good power shots. I knew I was going to hurt him, so I backed him off, or he started messing around. I hit him a lot to the body.”
“I think one or two judges only gave me two rounds. No way. I was watching the fight in the locker room and there were a lot of meaningful shots. The shots I landed meant a lot more. I feel like it didn't go my way, but that's OK. It's 1-1 and we can do it again in a neutral venue like Las Vegas. Let's go all out.”
While he didn't have time to rewatch the entire fight, Masvidal saw enough footage to know he landed the bigger, more impactful punches on Diaz in the bout, but he believes what worked against him was the crowd yelling louder every time Diaz threw a punch, which may have affected what the judges saw.
Perhaps the biggest issue for Masvidal regarding the scoresheet is not that he lost, but that the two judges who awarded the bout to Diaz ruled that Masvidal lost in a fairly one-sided manner.
“From what I saw, I hurt him a lot more than he hurt me,” Masvidal said. “I was a lot cleaner, especially with my strikes to the body. He didn't do anything to my body. I definitely hurt him to the body, but the couple of times I hurt him, he backed away. He was pressuring me a lot, coming forward, but he didn't hurt me. I don't think he landed any meaningful punches.”
“Two rounds out of eight is crazy. But hey, this is California. I knew I had to win by knockout or something like that.”
Though the result was disappointing, Masvidal still managed to achieve the rare feat of co-promoting a blockbuster with Diaz that sold out the Honda Center in Anaheim. His day-to-day duties may come with a little more responsibility than when he was fighting for the UFC, but Masvidal knows it was all worth it in the end.
“No matter what happens, I know we put on a great fight,” Masvidal said. “Everybody's ecstatic online, and I know it was a great fight whether we won or lost. Of course winning is the most important thing, but entertaining the crowd is also an important factor. So I'm happy we entertained everybody, and I'm sure we could fill any other arena we could put on.”
Saturday's bout marked Masvidal's first since announcing his retirement from UFC in 2023. Though he remains under contract with the promotion, Masvidal received permission from UFC to switch to boxing to face Diaz. With his contract still in effect, Masvidal cannot fight in MMA again unless he returns to UFC, but either way, boxing appears to be his main focus for now.
“At UFC, we have a couple more [fights on my contract]”There are two at Fan Mio, so I'm definitely going to be in both boxing matches,” Masvidal revealed.
“Win or lose, it was a great experience. I learned a lot about the profession of boxing, the craft of boxing, and about myself. I still have room to work harder. I don't know who my next opponent will be, but I'm looking forward to finding someone.”
Ideally, Masvidal would like to settle things with Diaz, since they're technically 1-1 in their two fights. Masvidal beat Diaz at UFC 244 in 2019 but lost a majority decision in a rematch in the boxing ring. He'd love nothing more than to set up a third fight with Diaz, but this time in a venue where the crowd might be a little more evenly split.
“It's 1-1, we can do it again somewhere like Las Vegas,” Masvidal said. “Let's go to a neutral venue and go all out.”
