Eight months after retiring, two-time UFC welterweight title challenger Jorge Masvidal announced via Twitter that he is “unretired.”
Jorge Masvidal, who announced his retirement eight months ago at UFC 287, is back in the game. He tweeted on Monday, “unretired.”
Masvidal, a two-time UFC welterweight title challenger, kept it cryptic. His tweet was a one-word message, and he didn’t immediately respond to MMA Fighting’s request for more info.
Remember, back in October, Masvidal was eyeing a comeback. But not in MMA, he was thinking boxing.
He was pretty tight-lipped about it, though. He told ESPN.com, “No names right now, but I can tell you it’s early next year, and I can tell you somebody is going to get killed.”
BKFC Mike Perry had his sights set on Masvidal for a bare-knuckle fight. But Masvidal, with his long history in combat sports, seemed to lean more towards gloved combat.
Masvidal called it quits in April after a decisive loss to Gilbert Burns. That was his fourth consecutive defeat in the octagon, following a failed attempt to snatch the UFC welterweight title from then-champion Kamaru Usman at UFC 251. He got a rematch with Usman nine months later, but it didn’t go well. Usman knocked him out cold at UFC 261.
After retiring, Masvidal switched gears. He became the face of a bare-knuckle MMA promotion that carried his nickname, “Gamebred.” They held their sixth event last November, with UFC vets Alan Belcher and Roy Nelson headlining.
During an interview on The MMA Hour in April, Masvidal didn’t completely rule out a return to the ring. But he said it would take “something crazy” to lure him back, and he’d need the UFC’s go-ahead.
So, what does Masvidal’s “unretired” tweet mean? Has the MMA bigwig given him the green light to return? That’s still up in the air.
Before his losing streak, Masvidal was a rising star. He had three spectacular wins under his belt: a knockout of Darren Till; a record-breaking flying knee knockout of Ben Askren; and a TKO stoppage of Nate Diaz, which earned him the first-ever “BMF” belt.