Relive Jorge Masvidal's Backyard Fights vs. Kimbo Slice's Protege

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This past Saturday at UFC on Fox 23, Jorge Masvidal put on the most impressive performance of his 14-year professional MMA career. His opponent, Donald Cerrone, had been knocked out only twice in his previous 40 MMA fights before stepping into the cage with Masvidal.

If you weren't familiar with Gamebred heading into this fight, you're probably not the only one. Despite his 42 professional MMA fights prior to this one, he had always come up short in his most high-profile bouts. He had yet to produce a star-making performance.

His victory over Cowboy changed all that. 

Given that Masvidal's name is hotter than ever, it's worth looking back in time when he competed in backyard fights. His two most high-profile fights came against Kimbo's protege. Ray was the bigger and seemingly stronger fighter, but Masvidal used his superior technique and speed to wear him down and pick him apart. In both fights, Ray was left with no choice but to quit (warning: NFSW language). 

Masvidal recalled Kimbo's reaction to it all in an MMAjunkie interview last year: 

"He was going nuts. He took me out to eat dinner and at the time I was dead broke. He took me to this fancy-ass place and at the time I was like, 'Damn, this dude's balling.' And it was just cool as (expletive). I thought we were going to have to do some thugged-out (expletive), like run out on the bill, but he paid for the whole thing. I was like, 'Man, this is some crazy (expletive).'"

All these years later and Gamebred appears to be in the best fight shape of his life. Perhaps he's finally on his way to making a title run, assuming he can string together a few more impressive wins.