Jorge Masvidal is coming out of the garage, and he picked about the scariest door on the block to knock on. ALF Grappling announced Sunday that the former UFC BMF champion will face Khamzat Chimaev in a submission-only match on December 4, headlining the brand’s first card, ALF League 1, at The Agenda in Dubai. Bloody Elbow reported the booking, and Red Corner MMA confirmed it on social media, adding that more “household names” are expected to join the lineup. Ticket details are still to come.
The job for Masvidal is easy to describe and miserable to execute. He needs to become the first person to submit Chimaev. His résumé on that front is thin: two submission wins across 52 professional MMA fights. The last time anyone stress-tested his ground game in public, it went badly. At UFC 287 in Miami, Gilbert Burns took him down four times and kept him there for almost six minutes on the way to a clear decision, and Masvidal walked away from MMA after that 2023 loss.
The retirement had the shelf life of a gas station sandwich. He boxed Nate Diaz in 2024 and lost, then backed off his decision to leave the UFC behind. Since then he’s been angling for an Octagon return, mostly by calling out Leon Edwards whenever a microphone gets close. That fight hasn’t happened. What he got instead is Chimaev on a mat with no punches allowed, which is a little like asking your ex for a second chance and receiving a tax audit.
Borz Stays Busy
Chimaev has packed a lot into the years since Masvidal’s retirement. He climbed to the top of the middleweight division, held the UFC title, then lost it to Sean Strickland in May. Rather than sit around waiting for a clean path back to the belt, he’s been stacking wins in Real American Freestyle wrestling matches, beating Dillon Danis, Tyron Woodley, Gilbert Burns and Robbie Lawler. Yes, that Gilbert Burns, the same guy who smothered Masvidal at UFC 287. December 4 moves Chimaev under a new banner and into a different ruleset, where the goal shifts from scoring on top to making somebody tap.
My take: I love this as a spectacle and I’d want long odds to bet it as a contest. Masvidal is one of the great talkers this sport has produced, and his best weapons were always his hands and his mouth. Only one of those is legal in Dubai. Chimaev has spent the back half of 2026 ragdolling former UFC names in a ruleset that doesn’t even reward chokes, and now he gets to use them. If Masvidal is still conscious and untapped when the match ends, he should count it as a win and take a victory lap through The Agenda. I’ve got Chimaev finishing it, and I don’t think Gamebred gets to call out Leon Edwards from the hotel lobby afterward without a few people reminding him how Burns went.
