It’s been a quiet start to the year for the UFC, but this Saturday it all kicks off again with UFC on Fox 23 in Denver, Colorado.

In the co-main event spot this weekend is an intriguing welterweight bout between Donald Cerrone and Jorge Masvidal. Both fighters are looking to propel themselves into the title talk at 170lbs and an impressive win on Saturday night could do exactly that.

A natural fighter

While the two men haven’t exactly seen eye-to-eye in the lead up to the fight, many consider them both very similar in the fact that they both love to fight. Masvidal considers himself a ‘natural’ fighter and he explained exactly what he meant by this to Robin Black on The Fight Network  last week.

“By natural I mean I can see stuff in slow motion and I can react,” Masvidal said. “I’m not nervous, I’m calm and I can see shots coming. I don’t have to tell my body to duck, my body just does it. That’s what being a natural fighter is and that’s what being born to do this is.

[instagram url="https://www.instagram.com/p/BM-SlyzDTsh/" hide_caption="0"]

“Of course, I’ve spent hours and hours just on the rope just bobbing and weaving, but that mixed with my natural abilities is what given me what I have. It’s combination of natural ability and practicing it out you know.”

Work ethic above everything

Masvidal then revealed the reason he began fighting was all about survival and making a living for himself. He then explained how he’d realized early on that it was his work ethic that was going to bring him success.

“It’s a combination of things, but to begin with this was my ticket out,” Masvidal said. “I just wanted to make an honest, honest living with the circumstances I had you know. I thought if I’m going to do this I’m just going to outwork everybody you know. It’s always been my motto, I’m going to do it more than them and I’m going to do it better than them.

“I had some great coaches in the beginning who told me that the secret was just doing it and then doing it again and then doing it again. When you are tired and you’re sore and you don’t want to do s*it then you do it again. You just got to outwork everybody.”

Fighting from an early age

Asked what age he realized he knew he was born to be a fighter, Masvidal revealed it was as early as the age of 8-years-old when he got in a fight on his way home from school.

“I was like 7 or 8 when I found out and I realized there was something about me that was a little bit different to everybody else,” Masvidal said. “I remember walking home from school with my bike and these kids try to take my bike from me, I think was like 9 or 8-years-old and these dudes were in like their teenage years like 13 or 14. They tried to take my bike, but guess what happened? I went home with my bike.

“I wasn’t even training at the time. It was just the environment laced with my meanness. I can tell you nobody was going to say s*it to me man.”

One of the meanest at ATT

Training out of American Top Team in Florida, Masvidal is in an environment alongside hundreds of other professional fighters with the same goals as him. While they may have the same career ambitions, Masvidal still believes he’s cut from a different cloth and he says that his coaches would say the same thing.

“They will tell you, if I’m not the meanest, I’m one of the meanest S.O.Bs to ever walk through those doors,” Masvidal said. “I’ve always been able to rely on that [attitude] of [even if] my legs hurt, I’m tried or this guy is way better than me technically, well you know what? I think this guys is a b*tch inside and I’m going to bring it out of him.

“I’ve spent my whole life trying to be the most technical dude possible, but I know at the end of the day when it comes down to it, when it gets hard and you see dudes bail—you ain’t ever seen me bail.

[instagram url="https://www.instagram.com/p/BIlNRvAg5Z-/" hide_caption="0"]

“If you’re a fight fan and you’ve seen my fights, then you’ve seen me get dropped and get back up and get in that man’s face. I’ve never gotten hit and looked for a way out or given up my back and looked for a way out or stupid s*it like that. If you’ve seen me get back up and get in that man’s face—that’s what a fighter is you know.”

In this game to fight

Masvidal then explained how he believed The Ultimate Fighter series had attracted both men and women to the fight game that were just interested in achieving fame. He said that wasn’t what he was all about and that he was a throwback to the old days of the UFC.

“These guys are just pimps and hos that are all about the fame,” Masvidal said. “I’m not about that. I’m a throwback to the guys in the early UFCs. I didn’t compete with those animals where there no rules, but I’ve would’ve done that.

“I’m not in this for the fame. I’m in this sport because I just love to fight.”