When Gilbert Burns was pulled from the UFC 251 main event after testing positive for COVID-19, Jorge Masvidal immediately threw his name out as a possible replacement.
Of course, Masvidal volunteering didn’t mean the fight would actually happen, especially after he failed to come to terms with the UFC previously when a fight against welterweight champion Kamaru Usman was planned for this summer.
Once Burns was out, however, the UFC returned to the negotiating table but even then the deal didn’t get done in rapid-fire fashion.
“As of Friday night, we definitely didn’t have a deal done,” Masvidal’s manager Malki Kawa told MMA Fighting.