For years, Jorge Masvidal was something of an also-ran in the UFC. A well-respected veteran with a bevy of technical skills, Masvidal repeatedly came up short in the highest echelons of the sport, often on the wrong end of contentious decisions. But since returning to the welterweight division in 2015, and particularly within the last year, Masvidal has looked like a new fighter, both in the cage and outside of it.

While his in-cage acumen has improved in recent years, the more startling change is the emergence of Masvidal as a serious trash-talker. Masvidal has gotten increasingly more vocal over the last year and he’s taken a shine to starting mottos for himself in the form of social media hashtags. In particular, Masvidal has been promulgating #makewelterweightgreatagain, #easymoney, and especially #hoslapseason. Speaking with Submission Radio recently, Masvidal explained the derivation of his most beloved marketing gimmick and establishes what he means by it.

“What it means exactly is hos are getting slapped, man. I’m not talking about the female ones. I’m not talking about the female ones because all the princesses out in the world, I love them. I’m not slapping no women. It’s just certain dudes are getting slapped up, man. Especially the ones that be acting like hos.”

A quick perusal of Masvidal’s Twitter will reveal that he believes a great many UFC fighters fall under this category but none moreso that UFC middleweight champion Michael Bisping, or as Masvidal refers to him, “bitchping.” Bisping and Masvidal have been engaging in beef for some time now and the welterweight contender says that is the person most in need of one of those slaps.

“In my sport, there’s a lot of them. I’ll tell you one of them, that Bitchping Michael, whatever, The Count, you know, he’s a little bitch, he needs to get slapped up, man. He needs to f**king man up for this s**t that he did, you know? Ripping my country’s flag for no reason and then saying corny ass s**t like, ‘Well, the flag just happen to be there”. My ass! You put that s**t in your pocket and you probably brought it in.

“He’s such a corny dude. He does corny things like that like, like to another man that’s just finished fighting, you know, that nothing can happen. There’s more security in there than in the White House and you’re acting crazy like that? That’s not man s**t. I would respect him if he did that on the solo, like in front of Yoel or in front of me or anybody that reps that country and did things like that. I mean, he’s just a ho, man, since even before that, spitting on people’s corners. Who are you? Why would you do that? Maybe in England spitting on people is like acceptable, I don’t know, but here in America you get killed for s**t like that. You know? You don’t spit on people, especially people’s corners. So I just think that’s the No. 1 ho I gotta slap, man. And if God is with me and I get to get this title, I’m gonna break this dude’s face one way or the other. You know, I just gotta get in there and show the world what a ho he is.”

Bisping really set Masvidal off when he ripped the Cuban flag while sitting cageside for Yoel Romero’s battle with Robert Whittaker. Masvidal, whose father is Cuban, did not take kindly to the act and he’s so willing to fight the middleweight champ, he says he’d do it on the cheap.

“I’m not saying that I’ll do it for free, because you never do nothing you’re good at for free, but I will fight that guy for like f**in’, I don’t know, take me to a McDonald’s and let me pig out and I’m fighting that guy. Just buy me a f**king dinner and I’ll break that guy’s face.”

No being willing to fight Bisping is good news for the UFC though as both Masvidal and Bisping will be forced around each other in the coming months as both men are fighting on UFC 217 in Madison Square Garden, Bisping against Georges St-Pierre and Masvidal against Stephen Thompson. The risk of a backstage scuffle injuring one of the headlining fighters could be cause for concern among the brass but Masvidal says they have nothing to worry about because Bisping doesn’t want any actual drama with him, just stuff for the cameras.

“You know, that dude is a child. I’ve seen him in Vegas, the first time I’ve seen him actually in all of my life, and it was after he said all types of craziness on social media and telling me something [like], “If he ever saw me”. So I happened to be walking out of my hotel elevator and he’s getting out of a cab stumbling drunk and I see him and I just start staring at him and we were in the same line of path trajectory. He went completely the other side and just not focused on me, didn’t look at me, nothing. I look at him and I go, “Bisping, what’s up?” and I raise my hands up to see what his thought process is, what he’s thinking, and the whole UFC PR was in there and they was dying laughing because he threw up the cowabunga sign, just walked away and got in the elevator.

“Since then I knew he was a little ho. I already knew before, but that extra clarified it for me. So I’m sure he’s gonna try and get at me in New York or something but he knows who I am and I know he who is, man. He’s just gonna do craziness when the cameras are around but if it’s just me and that guy, let’s say we’re in a parking lot and he was trying to take my parking spot, it wouldn’t happen.”

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MUST-READ STORIES

Weigh-in. UFC Japan is tonight and the weigh-in results for it can be found here.

Out. Mizuto Hirota out of UFC Japan after scary, failed weight cut.

Done. Matt Brown announces that he will retire after fight with Diego Sanchez.

Angry. Georges St-Pierre calls Michael Bisping “a very angry person deep down.”

Asinine. Miesha Tate blasts Edmund Tarverdyan for wanting Rousey vs. Cyborg.

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VIDEO STEW

Bisping taking shots at Rockhold. Again.

BHop not interested in more McGregor boxing.

Bisping getting his teeth fixed on TMZ.

Coach Edmund on McGregor.

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SOCIAL MEDIA BOUILLABAISSE

Took him a year to come up with “your mom.”

We’ll never have Condit-Brown and that’s a sadness but good for Matt Brown.

Lucky bastards.

Cain debunks rumors that his surgery went poorly.

Staying on brand.

#wouldwatch

Clearly Chiesa taught Lee nothing about invoking mothers.

This is a thing that actually happened which is insane.

Buchholz took a short-notice fight and soccer kicked the crap out of a guy.

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FIGHT ANNOUNCEMENTS

N/A.

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TODAY IN MMA HISTORY

2000: UFC Hall of Famer Dan Severn fought for the final time at UFC 27, submitting to strikes from Pedro Rizzo.

2007: Chuck Liddell returned for the first time since losing his UFC light heavyweight title to Quinton Jackson, losing a split decision to Keith Jardine at UFC 76. In an even more stunning upset that night, Forrest Griffin upset Mauricio Rua with a third round rear-naked choke to secure himself a title shot.

2012: Demetrious Johnson began his UFC title reign, winning the inaugural flyweight title with a split decision over Joseph Benavidez at UFC 152. Also that evening, Vitor Belfort almost pulled off the upset over Jon Jones with an early armbar, but Jones eventually escaped and submitted Belfort in the fourth round to retain his light heavyweight title.

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FINAL THOUGHTS

It’s another one of those rare weekends where the best card is not a UFC card. Bellator 183 is just a better card than UFC Japan. Also, it’s insulting that Gadelha-Andrade isn’t the main event and that was true even when the main event was Shogun-OSP II. One of the best female fights possible to make and one that’s substantively changed by being three rounds instead of five. If Gadelha is angling for a third crack at Joanna Champion, wouldn’t it be better if she actually had to fight for 25 minutes instead of another three rounder? Instead, now we get a nonsensical 25 minute fight that no one cares about.

Anyway, enjoy the weekend and see y’all Monday.

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EXIT POLL

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