EXCLUSIVE | Jorge Masvidal eyes UFC 232 return, names Paul Felder as possible opponent

Jorge Masvidal has not fought since November of 2017, when he gave up a decision to two-time UFC welterweight title challenger Stephen “Wonderboy” Thompson.

Since then, “Gamebred” has stayed busy by competing on a Spanish reality television show, but now that the show has wrapped, he’s ready to get back into the cage.

Speaking on episode 101 of BJPENN.COM Radio, Masvidal divulged that he’s hoping to ‘destroy somebody’ in the cage very soon — ideally at UFC 232 on December 29 in Las Vegas.

“I’m trying to get on the Jon Jones card,” Masvidal said. “December 29th, just date wise, it’ll be a good [amount of] time for me to get in the gym, sweat it out, get a bunch of adrenaline, get my timing back. I really haven’t done any training on MMA whatsoever.

“I don’t know if I still got my jab. Is my jab still the fastest jab in MMA? I gotta go refresh that. I gotta hit the refresh button,” he added. “While I do that I would want some time. December 29th would be perfect. So then I can get in there and just mark up whoever they put in front of me. Just destroy somebody utterly.”

So, which unlucky somebody is Jorge Masvidal hoping to destroy at UFC 232? Well, that depends on the weight class he fights at. Although he’s recently competed in the 170-pound welterweight division, he says there’s a chance his next fight will occur in the 155-pound lightweight division, where his career began.

“I’m super open to fighting at ’70,” he said. “It’s more chances that I’m gonna fight at ’70. It’s like a 70 percent chance that I’m gonna fight at ’70, but the window for ’55 has never been so big for me to go back down.

“’70 is my home, and I only want a fight at ’55 that makes sense,” he added. “The top-10 dudes or something like that. Somebody close to it. I just don’t wanna drop down and fight somebody that just won The Ultimate Fighter show or some shit like that.”

“I wanna get a true test of what the ’55 [division] brings and if I could pass that test with flying colors I’d drop down again and fight the next biggest name I could get my hands on.”

Whichever weight class he returns to, Jorge Masvidal says he’s interested in fighting Paul Felder, who has recently floated between the 170 and 155-pound divisions.

“I didn’t really get too many names and stuff that are available,” Masvidal said. “I think ’55 and ’70 are kind of locked up. A lot of stagnant movement. And Paul Felder is a scrap, if that’s the biggest name we could get.”

Do you think Jorge Masvidal should compete in the 155 or 170-pound division in his next fight? Who do you want to see him matched up with?

This article first appeared on BJPENN.COM on 10/15/2018.