Dustin Poirier says his teammate, Jorge Masvidal has been training for Kamaru Usman even when Gilbert Burns was booked for the title fight.
Masvidal and Usman were expected to fight this summer, but the UFC and “Gamebred” could not come to an agreement on pay. So, the promotion turned to Burns instead but after the Brazilian tested positive for COVID-19, Masvidal ended up taking the fight on short notice.
For many fans, they were wondering how much Masvidal had been training. Well, according to his teammate in Poirier, Gamebred has been training a ton preparing to fight Usman.
“It’s a short notice (fight) because he didn’t have the contract signed. But let me tell you what. This guy was there my whole training camp (for Dan Hooker), he was my main sparring partner. We probably put in five weeks of sparring together,” Dustin Poirier said on Teddy Atlas podcast (h/t BJPENN.com). “He flew in wrestlers, the best wrestlers in the world, I think they put them up just for Masvidal to use. Even when the fight fell through and they gave it to Burns, I think it was at the end of my training camp, Jorge was still in the gym every day like he had a fight.”
“I don’t know if he knew something we didn’t, but the guy was in training camp the whole time and never stopped. I think he’s going to surprise a lot of people with the shape he’s in, his timing’s going to be good because he was in my camp the whole time,” he continued. “Helping a few guys, not just me. He’s in fight shape, I know that much. This isn’t a guy who’s coming off the couch. This is a guy who was preparing to fight Usman and the fight fell through and he kept training.”
Jorge Masvidal enters this fight riding a three-fight winning streak and a ton of hype behind him. Yet, he is a three-to-one underdog, but is confident he will score another KO win in the main event of UFC 251.
