Both are two of my favorite fighters who I've been following since they were prospects - been a fan of Masvidal since he knocked out Yves in bodog and been a fan of Nate since tuf 4.
Masvidal just has this fight at this point in his career. He's in his prime and peaking and he's also a more natural WW. it's a really stylistic bad matchup since Nate will have the size disadvantage, Masvidal is one of the few guys in the game who might have better boxing than Nate (I think he does), and his footwork is really good and won't be easy to walk down and box into the cage. He's definitely the better wrestler than Nate, offensively and defensively. but even if he gets him there he's got some of the best defensive jiu jitsu at welterweight. If Maia can't choke out Jorge with his back taken and full hooks in, good fucking luck. Nate still has the advantage in the clinch, his cardio, chin, and fight iq, but I don't see those being the deciding factors in this fight since Nate is more of a volume guy and jorge's cardio has never been an issue, and his fight IQ has looked very on point in the last year. If this fight was happening at lightweight in 2013-2015, I'd favor Nate, since jorge would always coast in later rounds and Nate comes on hard, but I think he has just too many things against him at this point of the careers imo.
Would love to see him prove me wrong and if it happens I just hope it's a war.
