Jorge Masvidal backs Kevin Vallejos to become future UFC champion

Jorge Masvidal is riding the Kevin Vallejos hype train. Masvidal says he hasn’t been as excited for a prospect in a while as he is for Vallejos (18-1). “Gamebred” was extremely impressed with Vallejos’ dominant knockout win over Josh Emmett at UFC Vegas 114 earlier this month.

Masvidal is confident that Vallejos is destined for championship glory in the featherweight division. Destined for Big Things? “That dude is the truth,” Masvidal said on the "Death Row MMA” podcast.

“I haven’t been excited about a motherf——r in a minute… He made it look like Emmett brought fists, and he pulled out a gun and started shooting… I’m very high on this guy. I think this guy’s gonna do big things at 145 [pounds]. If this guy doesn’t become champ, I don’t know s—t about the sport.

” Vallejos suffered his lone professional loss in his first Dana White's Contender Series opportunity in 2023 against Jean Silva , who is now on the cusp of featherweight title contention. A couple of wins on the regional circuit earned another Contender Series for Vallejos, who earned his UFC contract this time with a first-round knockout win. The Argentinian then racked up three consecutive wins, finishing Giga Chikadze and Seung Woo Choi , to get his first UFC main event against Josh Emmett .