Jorge Masvidal sat down on “Deep Waters,” got asked about the UFC 335 main event, and handed the matchmakers a note they definitely didn’t request. He’s right, and the most convincing part of his case is the part where he picks the champ to win.
The booking: Charles Oliveira (37-11 MMA, 25-11 UFC) puts the BMF belt on the line for the first time against Diego Lopes (28-8 MMA, 7-3 UFC) on Dec. 12 at T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas, streaming on Paramount+. Lopes is moving up from featherweight after coming up short in two title fights against Alexander Volkanovski. So his first walk to the cage as a lightweight ends with him staring at a former UFC lightweight champion, with a belt in the middle of the Octagon.
Masvidal’s problem with that is simple, and he said it plainly.
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“I don’t like Lopes, his first fight at ’55 against Oliveira for the BMF belt,” Masvidal said. “I would have liked to see him in one fight and then fight Charles, because Charles has done so much in the f*cking sport and at 155.”
One Fight. That’s All He Asked For.
This is about the most reasonable thing a former BMF champion could say. Masvidal didn’t trash Lopes. He went out of his way to do the opposite, saying, “Lopes has done a lot of cool sh*t, as well, too. I’m not going to hate on him.” He wanted a single data point at the new weight before Lopes got the guy with all the lightweight history.
And I’m with him. Lopes lost two title fights at 145 to the same man. You can love the guy’s style (I do, he fights like someone owes him money) and still find it strange that the reward for going 0-2 against Volkanovski is an instant main event against Oliveira with hardware attached. One fight at 155 tells everybody something. Does the power travel? Does he still look fast against bigger bodies? Does the cardio hold when the guy across from him weighs more on fight night? Right now the answer to all three is a shrug, and the UFC is selling that shrug as a pay-per-view headliner.
The counterargument writes itself. The BMF belt was always a vibes title, so who cares about rankings? Fine. Vibes still need a reason, though. A fun fighter who lost twice in the division he’s leaving is a thin reason to fight the champion of anything, even a belt that exists mostly so somebody can wear it at a press conference.
The Gaethje Pitch
Masvidal’s alternative came out in classic Masvidal fashion.
“There’s a couple of guys. I would have said run Justin Gaethje and Charles Oliveira for both belts or something like that maybe,” he said.
That “or something like that maybe” at the end is doing a lot of heavy lifting, and I have no idea what the second belt in that sentence is supposed to be. I’m not convinced he did either. But the instinct is sound. Gaethje vs. Oliveira for the BMF strap needs zero explaining. You put the two names on a poster and walk away. Lopes vs. Oliveira needs a paragraph about weight classes and a footnote about Volkanovski, and that’s usually a sign the fight got booked for some reason other than being the obvious one.
His Own Pick Makes the Case
The breakdown is where Masvidal really makes his point, even though he probably didn’t mean to.
He gives Oliveira the edge in tools, calling him “more well rounded” with “more threats,” and pointing to “his elbows, his knees.” He thinks the game plan is right there for Charles. Lopes likes to tuck into what Masvidal called the “Tyson shell,” close the distance and then open up, and Masvidal thinks Oliveira can time that entry with knees, teeps and “the one-twos straight down the pipe.” Hit those early and Masvidal sees a possible stoppage.
Then he flags the worry. He said Oliveira has “a little bit more miles on the chin, and Diego is pretty fresh.”
And then the line that matters most: “Charles is one of my favorite fighters. I want to go with Charles, but I feel like they’re trying to set up Diego and get him that.”
There it is. A guy who held this exact belt looked at the matchup and saw a featherweight getting fast-tracked into a damaged legend. I’m not going to pretend I know what’s going on inside the UFC offices, and Masvidal didn’t claim to either. He said it’s how the fight feels to him. But when the fresh challenger skips the line and the champion is the one carrying the mileage, that feeling is pretty easy to understand.
If Lopes wins, the UFC gets a new star at 155 without him ever having to prove he belongs there. If Oliveira wins, he does it by beating a guy who never had a warmup fight at the weight. Neither outcome tells us much that one extra booking wouldn’t have told us first.
On Dec. 12, watch the first exchange. If Lopes shells up and walks forward, and Oliveira meets him with a knee, Masvidal will have made his argument without saying another word.
