Saturday night in Las Vegas. UFC 239 at the T-Mobile Arena. Expectations are high. Jorge Masvidal had said that he wanted to punish Askren, undefeated up to now, as nobody else has.
As soon as the referee gave the order, Askren and Masvidal faced off in the middle of the Octagon. Suddenly Jorge jumps and manages to strike a knee on his opponent’s neck. Askren falls on the canvas -he was already knocked out-, Masvidal hits him on the head a couple of times until the referee reacts and stops the fight.
Five seconds! That’s how long it took Masvidal to snatch the undefeated label from the conceited Askren.
A historic fight. “It was one of the wildest KOs I’ve ever seen in my life,” said Dana White, president of UFC. The fastest knockout in UFC history. I was so excited, I guess the millions of people who saw the fight felt the same way.
Masvidal is a “street fighter. Before he became a celebrity in outfits like Bellator or UFC he was already famous in the Miami fighting world. The son of a Cuban rafter and a Peruvian woman, he was born and raised in Miami. He says that before he is American he feels Latin. He defines himself as conservative and openly supports Trump.
My admiration for him is not only for how fantastic he is every time he steps on the canvas, but he is also an intelligent fighter and his courage is not only limited to fighting, it transcends to politics. In a world where supporting Trump and speaking out against socialism can pose serious problems – such as falling victim to the culture of cancellation – Masvidal speaks openly on politics.
“I am everything that opposes communism, socialism, even democratic socialism, everything that flies under that banner that says, ‘We’re going to do all these great things for you, we’re going to give you all these free benefits here and free benefits there, but we’re going to take away your freedom. I’m against that,” said the Cuban-American, author of the fastest knockout in history, in an interview with DISRN.
Jorge says his parents and entire family have told him since childhood about the tactics of the socialists to come to power and then destroy everything, so he claims that all during his life he has been trained to smell them – the socialists.
“I am against everything that opposes freedom,” Masvidal says. As a result, he is part of Fighters Against Socialism, a program that brings together MMA fighters who, like him, stand up to the left to avoid the misery -moral and material- that occurs every time those ideas come to power.
Masvidal has also been clear with the Democratic Party, pointing out fundamental points. In an interview, while still a presidential candidate, Joe Biden told the black journalist who was interviewing him that if he was hesitating about voting for Trump or for him, then he was not black. Biden believes that blacks can only vote Democratic. And the same goes for Latinos. Democrats believe the Latino vote belongs to them. The MMA fighter clearly sees the strategy of the Democrats taking over the Latino vote and making Hispanics in general believe that the right wing, the Republicans, and especially Trump, are their enemies. That’s why Masvidal warns:
“The Democrats simply think they have a right to the Latino vote. They think we just have to give it to them (…) They have to show us what they can do for us, what they can do for our communities. We’re not going to buy the same false promises that destroyed big countries like Venezuela and Cuba. It’s not going to happen.
Specifically about Trump and Biden, the fighter said at an event in Miami:
“I’m a professional athlete and have been for most of my life, so I’ve seen things through a sports lens; that makes Donald Trump our head coach and before the world pandemic we were winning Super Bowls. And when you win Super Bowls, you don’t fire the coach, no matter if you don’t like the plays he runs, the players he puts on the field or what he says on Twitter. You don’t replace him with another coach who’s been in business for 47 years at every level and never won a damn game.
Masvidal is a fantastic fighter, the excitement he left us with the Askren knockout is unbeatable. He is also a smart man; he understood, with his family history, that socialism leaves you in misery but also takes away the most valuable thing: freedom.
In addition, he represents hard-working Latinos who love America and see this country as an opportunity to go far and fulfill their dreams through effort and perseverance. It is the image of the Latino who starts at the bottom and with hard work makes it to the top. And from the top he tells others: you can do it!
Vanessa Vallejo. Co-editor-in-chief of El American. Economist. Podcaster. Political and economic analysis of America. Colombian exile in the United States // Vanessa Vallejo. Co-editora en jefe de El American. Economista. Podcaster. Análisis político y económico de América. Colombiana exiliada en EE. UU.