Dana White's adamant Leon Edwards' next fight will be against Colby Covington ... but Jorge Masvidal isn't quite so sure, telling us he believes he can change the UFC honcho's mind with a win over Gilbert Burns, and snatch the fight from "cop-calling charlatan bitch ass Cupcake Covington."
"100% [I can jump Colby]. I feel it in my heart, I see it in my mind," 38-year-old Masvidal told Babcock on the "TMZ Sports" TV show (airs weeknights on FS1).
"UFC, at the end of the day is a pay-per-view selling business, and Colby's bitch ass has never sold over 300,000 pay-per-views except when it was against me. What are him and Leon gonna do?"
31-year-old Edwards defeated Kamaru Usman last month, retaining the welterweight title. Following the fight, White told reporters Covington was next in line, to the chagrin of some fans who were really hoping to see Masvidal vs. Edwards.
Of course, Jorge and Leon have serious beef -- er, chicken -- which came to a head in the UK in 2019, when the two men were involved in a backstage altercation after Edwards yelled something at Masvidal as he was being interviewed backstage after beating Darren Till.
Gamebred didn't take kindly to what Rocky said, so he served him up a "3-piece and a soda."
First, Masvidal has to beat fellow contender, Durinho Burns, the 5th-ranked fighter in the division, at UFC 287 on Saturday ... a fight Jorge believes suits his style.
"In the Gilbert fight, I don't have a standout wrestler conditioning freak like that where he can just continue to go for takedown after takedown. He doesn't have that, he's never shown that," Masvidal said.
"And on the standup, yeah, he throws hard, but he doesn't understand the sweet science. He doesn't understand setups. He doesn't understand distance, timing, fakes, things like that. From a technical standpoint, I think this is a great match for me. I just have to show up, put my hard hat on, put my mouthpiece on, and get to work and just put the holes in this guy's face."
When Jorge and Gilbert step into the Octagon, they'll be doing it at Miami-Dade Arena in Masvidal's hometown of Miami, where Gamebred, just a kid, grew up fighting older and bigger dudes in backyards and in the streets.
Masvidal reps MIA heavy to this day ... and the card is especially important to him because as a kid, he told a friend he'd bring a big UFC card back to South Florida one day, and now he has.
"I looked over to my friend who I was with and I told him 'One day I'll bring a show over here to Miami.' It took 20 years but now we're in this bitch!"
And, Jorge says the city couldn't be happier or more grateful.
"The reception that I've had everywhere I go, it's like people are losing their minds 'cause they just go up to me, 'thank you for bringing the show here finally.' It's such a great reception. It's one of the warmest welcomes I've ever had."