While it appears that former title challenger Colby Covington will get the next welterweight title shot against champion Leon Edwards, the UFC’s 170-pound division is a logjam of contenders.
Former champion Kamaru Usman sits at the top of the rankings but has lost twice to Edwards in back-to-back fights. Covington is ranked No. 2, but hasn’t fought since March 2022 after defeating former teammate turn rival Jorge Masvidal.
Khamzat Chimaev is ranked third but badly missed weight for his last outing causing a shakeup of the entire UFC 279 main card.. Belal Muhammad occupies the fourth spot in the 170-pound rankings and is on an eight-fight winning streak.
When there’s a logjam of contenders, it’s possible to leapfrog many or all of them if you have the right storyline and put on a memorable performance. There’s where No. 11 ranked Jorge Masvidal sits in the welterweight title picture. If Masvidal were to defeat No. 5 ranked Gilbert Burns in dramatic fashion in the UFC 287 co-main event this weekend, Masvidal could find himself facing Edwards next. It’s a long shot, but the possibility is there.
Masvidal doesn’t want to see one of the contenders get a title shot. He doesn’t believe Chimaev deserves to compete for a world championship after missing weight by 8.5 pounds and trashed “Borz” in a recent interview.
“That guy’s not even fighting. This new style of fighter, it’ like beyond me. You can just go on Instagram and talk a lot of sh*t. In every interview all he ever says is, ‘I’m ganster this and I’m ganster that.’ Gangers make weight and compete because before you’re a gangster, you’re a f**king man,” Masvidal told the Sporting News.
“From man to man if I said that I’m going to fight you at this weight and I agree and I go as far as to put my signature on that thing, the least you could do is 1, not do steroids, and 2, f**king make the weight,” continued Masvidal.
“I’m not accusing him of doing steroids, which I wouldn’t be surprised anyways, but anybody that’s doing steroids and not making the weight, you’re not a fighter. You are a version of a fight, but you’re not a pure fighter because you can’t do that. That’s the first sign of respect that we have for each other. Then after that, beat the living crap out of each other. Let’s go to town. Let the best man win, but you have to play by the rules. We both agreed on a weight and now the weight cut got tough. I didn’t feel like cutting 8.5 pounds because that’s exactly what he missed by. Get the f**k out of here.”
Masvidal doesn’t think Chimaev will be around the fight game for very much longer.
“I think guys like that, he had already retired at some point because he caught Corona, or the flu. I don’t know. He made this whole, big stink. I don’t think, personally, that he’ll be around this sport much longer,” Masvidal said.
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