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HOUSTON – Jorge Masvidal is tight-lipped about whether he has officially signed to challenge Kamaru Usman for the UFC welterweight title during International Fight Week in July, but all signs point to the process being near the finish line.

Usman (16-1 MMA, 11-0 UFC) is certainly the center of Masvidal’s (35-13 MMA, 12-6 UFC) focus at the moment. “Gamebred” turned in a massive year in 2019 to solidify his shot at the gold, and as one of the longest-tenured veterans in the entire sport, he said he’s ready to round out his legacy by putting UFC gold around his waist.

“I’d break his face – I’d (expletive) his ass up,” Masvidal told MMA Junkie on Thursday. “(The title) definitely signifies something. But more than that, beating Usman in a really bad way would be better for me in a way. He’s got a couple victories against a couple of my teammates, so I definitely got to represent for ATT there and take his head off.”

Masvidal and Usman recently got into a verbal altercation on Super Bowl Radio Row in Miami, yelling back and forth at each other in a clip that went viral. For Masvidal, it was a (super) necessary moment.

There’s been plenty of words exchanged between the two online and during interviews, and Masvidal said he had to show he’s not intimidated.

“Nothing was going to happen there,” Masvidal said. “I’m not going to touch somebody that’s already incapacitated and (expletive). He’s a punk and I just wanted to tell him to his face, ‘I’m going to (expletive) you up.’ I don’t know what he got so upset about. I just wanted to tell him the truth that I’m going to (expletive) you up when we finally fight. He always says he wants people to keep that same energy and say it to his face, that’s exactly what I did.”

For Masvidal, this particular fight with Usman is personal. It’s not just about the title, but also teaching a lesson to someone he dislikes.

“He’s got like 38 personalities,” Masvidal said. “Every week I keep finding a new one. I don’t like any of them so far. I’ve known this guy for a while and he wasn’t that guy before. He was asking me for pictures and handshakes back in the day. Really his name is Kamarudeen. It’s not even Kamaru. He actually shortened up his real birth name. This guy is just a head case of head cases.”

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