Jorge Masvidal: 'I Don't Want to Go to Jail for Killing' Conor McGregor in UFC

UFC welterweight star Jorge Masvidal appeared on ESPN's Get Up on Thursday and said UFC President Dana White does not want him to face Conor McGregor.

During the interview, Masvidal claimed White was against the fight because he feels Masvidal would seriously injure or kill McGregor:

"That fight, the president deemed it not good because they don't want, like, a murder charge on us, so they're not going to allow that to happen. The president himself already said it, so I mean, I don't want to go to jail for killing nobody. That's not what I want to do. I'm here to compete and beat people up, ya know?"

Masvidal then added: "The president said that we can't compete because I'm too much, man. So that can't happen. We're different spectrums. He's not going to allow that to happen."

McGregor is currently retired from MMA, while Masvidal is coming off a pair of impressive knockout victories over Darren Till and Ben Askren, marking the first loss of Askren's career.

Per Lewis Mckeever of Bloody Elbow, White said in July that there is too much of a size disparity between Masvidal and McGregor: "Masvidal's too big for him, man. I think Masvidal's too big, Conor disagrees. So, Conor was not happy that I said Masvidal was too big for him."

Masvidal stands 5'11" to McGregor's 5'9", and while McGregor did fight Nate Diaz twice at welterweight in 2016, he has primarily been a lightweight and featherweight during his career.

McGregor lost one of those fights to Diaz, and he also fell to Khabib Nurmagomedov at lightweight last year before retiring. Overall, McGregor owns a 21-4 career record with reigns as both the UFC lightweight and featherweight champion.

Masvidal lost to Demian Maia and Stephen Thompson in 2017, but he bounced back with the wins over Till and Askren and has won five of his past seven fights overall. The 34-year-old veteran has never been a champion in the UFC, but he owns a pro record of 34-13.

While McGregor is technically retired, there has been speculation about when he would come back and who he would face ever since it was announced. There was even some talk of a McGregor vs. Donald Cerrone fight earlier this year, but it never came to fruition.

Perhaps a Masvidal vs. McGregor fight could be in the cards at some point, but until then, Masvidal is focused on facing Diaz at UFC 244 in November.