Jorge Masvidal has fought at least 20 times in his six-year career as a professional mixed martial artist, but he'd be fighting a lot more often if he had his druthers.  "I wish I could fight every month," said Masvidal. "It helps me to keep my weight down."  The veteran of Strikeforce, Sengoku and Bodog is getting that chance now, in the inaugural lightweight tournament of Bellator Fighting Championships. So far he's living up to his billing as one of the tourney favorites — Masvidal took only 79 seconds to beat Nick Agallar on April 3 in the tournament's first round.  He's scheduled to face Toby Imada (21-12) in the second round on May 1, in Dayton, Ohio.  Jorge Masvidal, standing, has a 17-3 pro MMA record. Bellator  Masvidal, a Florida resident training with American Top Team and South Miami Sports Performance, spoke to me this week about the upcoming fight, his training for the overall tournament and his desire for a rematch with Rodrigo Damm, the only man to record a technical knockout victory over him. Excerpts from the conversation with Masvidal:  Q: You finished Nick Agallar pretty quickly. How's your physical condition coming out of that?  Masvidal: It's pretty good, man. Thank God that I ain't got no injuries or nothing, so I'm ready to go again, kick some more butt and not get injured. All I'm looking forward to is not getting injured.  How do you prepare for such a quick turnaround in this tournament?  Prior to the first fight, maybe about three weeks before that fight before we had tapered off, the load of my work was incredible. It was just a lotta, lotta, lotta hard work, because we knew that in between the fights, we weren't going to be able to get a lot of gains. ... I wasn't going to be able to push myself. I was just going to have to taper down and maintain what I have. But I pushed it originally.  Right after the fight, I got right back into the gym. I worked hard the first few weeks, the we started tapering it down a little bit, and then I picked it back up a little bit closer to the fight.  Are you finding it harder to maintain your peak condition than you normally would?  I wish I could fight every month. It helps me keep my weight down. I cheat a lot on my diet and yet my weight is still okay, so that's one good part about it.  You've got to peak at the right time. You've got to know when to slow down and you've got to know when to speed it up. and when it's time to speed it up, just go hard.  What do you normally walk around at, in terms of weight?  If I don't have to fight for a month, I could get as high as 184, 183, but that's about as I get, I think.  So when you're training regularly, what would you say it is?  If I'm training two to three times a day, I'd say my weight will be 176, probably, 175. If I start dieting, I can drop it down to a healthy 172.  So when you show up on fight night, you're back at around 170?  Looking ahead to Toby Imada, how would you break him down from a technical standpoint?  He looks like he's a tough dude, but I'm just going to punch him in the face. My strategy is going to be punch him in the face and not let him get too close to me, and if he does, just take him down.  I don't feel his wrestling or his judo is that high level. I feel on the ground, he's a little better than he is standing, but as far as takedowns go and such, on the wrestling, I don't think he's all that great. He might surprise me, he might be stronger than what he looks and move smoother once I'm in there with him. But to me, he doesn't look all that technical on the feet.  So you think you could just take him down and pound him out from the top?  I think I could take him down, which I'm probably not going to (plan to do so). He has a solid ground game, though; I'll say that much. From his one fight that I've seen in Bellator, it looked like he had a solid top ground game; I don't know how good off his back he is. But at one point or another, I am going to take him down and I'm going to hurt him from there, land big shots.  What did you think of his fight against Alonso Martinez?  I thought he was looking horrible, man.  All it was, they hit the ground, and when they hit the ground he was able to cut his head, get to half guard, took the guy's back and then finished him out. It looked like the guy was going to escape, if you saw that fight. The guy was right about to get out and then boom, he brought him back in, kept working the choke and choked him out. It was impressive how he moved on the ground.  But on the feet, as far as everything went on the feet, I thought he was horrible.  What do you see as a weakness there?  I think he's clumsy, man. I don't know if he has two left feet or what it is, but on the feet, he's just clumsy. He's just awkward looking.  Compared to some of the other competitors in Bellator, you've had a lot of experience in some of the better-known non-UFC shows: Strikeforce,Sengoku, Bodog. How much of a difference do you think that makes for you, compared to most of the other guys?  Fighting in a big show or fighting in someone's backyard, it really doesn't matter. But the only thing I might have is fighting from Japan, and not because the stages in Japan are just huge; it's more getting used to the time (spent in) travel. You spend 28 hours traveling; and then you've got three or four days to recuperate; then you've got to get adjusted to the time change.  Now I'm going to Ohio. Somebody from, I don't know, like East Coast or far out in the West might get a little disoriented with the two-, three-hour change. I'm used to a 13-hour difference, so that's one advantage that I definitely hold. Anywhere in the United States, I'm going to be comfortable fighting, just because I'm used to the extreme of fighting in Japan.  You won two of your three fights for Sengoku. What's the likelihood that you'll be fighting over there again?  The likelihood is 100% that I'll be fighting over there after this is done.  And to clarify that: I got robbed on my first one (against Rodrigo Damm). Even the promoter of the company came and he apologized, and the referee. If you saw the fight, I got robbed over there in my fight. ... The referee, everybody over there, the staff, they came and apologized to me. They told me, looking back, there was a huge mistake.  Definitely I'll be fighting there after the end of this tournament.  Do you know when you'll next be in Sengoku?  I want to say sometime in September. This tournament ends in June. I think right around September I'd like to get back in it.  Any preferences for an opponent over there, or have they indicated who it might be?  I'm going to call out Rodrigo Damm, just because I felt like there was a robbery. And everybody else that saw it felt it was a robbery, so we need to ... break his (freaking) face in, really. Maybe get another fight in there and then fight for the title.  I'm assuming you thought it was stopped early. You might have a case there; you certainly still seemed with it when they stopped it.  I hit the ground. I broke the fall. If you see the tape, (you'll see that) I break the fall with my hands. He (goes) around the referee and I move my legs with him.  It's not like I attacked the referee. You know how some people get dropped and then they attack the referee? I moved. I'm keeping my eyes on him the whole time. ... If he were to hit me with another shot and then I go limp, then there's a case for argument. But I hit the floor with one punch; at least let me get hit two or three times and see where I'm at. I wasn't given a fair chance  Yet I dropped him in the first round and they gave him a fair chance — it wouldn't have been fair if they stopped it. It would've been a good outcome for me, (but) I would've felt, "Hey, that's not fair." You should be put out (to require a referee stoppage).  To call that a knockout — now I have a knockout on my record. Every time somebody brings that up, that's the thing that (ticks) me off the most, man. I've never been knocked out, and (yet) this is a KO.  What did you think of Damm's fight against Gilbert Melendez?  He looked horrible, man. I know they were telling me he took the fight within a week's notice and such, but, man, he just looked really, really bad. He looked clumsy.  He's a really good grappler. I don't know why he didn't work better off his back, or at least look to stand up once he was getting pounded. I know Gilbert's a good grappler too, but I would've thought grappling, Rodrigo might've had the edge. I know wrestling, definitely Gilbert. But just on the feet and in the scrambles, I thought Rodrigo might have had a good edge on him.  If you do get the rematch with Rodrigo, what would you do differently?  Be more aggressive. I did a lot of mistakes; my coaches, they went over it and they broke it down, what he did to me.  Originally I was supposed to fight Takanori Gomi and four days before the fight, they tell me it's Rodrigo Damm, and I was like, "Oh, OK." No biggie, I knew he was.  (But) it's a completely different game plan from fighting a striker with a good wrestling background to fighting a pure grappling guy, so I was being a little too cautious, instead of letting my hands go.  I dropped him in the first round and I still didn't jump on him how I usually do, just because I was respecting his jiu-jitsu a little too much.  The promoters in Japan have something of a reputation for switching opponents at the last minute. How much does that bother you, or how much are you wary of that when you go over there?  I'm aware of it a lot. That messed me up a little. I was training for a southpaw.  No excuses, though. Rodrigo, he went out and dropped me, which shouldn't even happen. But (stuff) happens.  In this Bellator tournament, you and Eddie Alvarez are probably the favorites. On the other side of the bracket, he's facing Eric Reynolds. How do you think that fight will go?  Hopefully Eddie doesn't get tagged again. You can't be getting touched on the chin too many times, it doesn't matter who you are, especially back-to-back.  So I think Eddie's going to take him down and pound him. I don't think Eric has good enough wrestling to stop his shots, and I definitely know that off his back he has nothing to offer.  Standing up (Eric) is a tough guy; he moves. But on the ground, he's basically fighting to survive, at least from what it looks like on the bottom position; I have never seen him on the top position, so I couldn't say. But off his back, it looks like he's just fighting to survive.  If you get past Toby Imada, how would you approach Eddie Alvarez or Eric Reynolds?  Both of those guys will do the same thing. Just tag them right in the nose until they do something stupid, and then hit them with a big shot. I'm just going to hit them both in the nose.  I think both of them are going to come out to bang with me. I think Eddie will be a little more variety; he looks for takedowns. I don't know if Eric will; I don't know too much about Eric, but Eddie, I know he's going to switch it up with a takedown, especially after I tag him a couple of times.  Which of Eddie's fights do you find most useful in analyzing how to beat him?  I don't know. There's a bunch of them.  He always looks like he comes with the same game plan, which is wear and tear. Hit the guy, hit the guy, hit the guy, switch it up for takedown, and then take a couple of shots in-between somewhere, and then he keeps coming.  The Dida fight was a good fight that I've seen a couple of times, me and my coaches. There's a bunch of fights I've seen with Eddie where he makes the same mistakes.  But I like Eddie as a fighter. He's entertaining.
Q&A: Jorge Masvidal talks Bellator, Damm - MMA Fighting Stances: Mixed martial arts intelligence from the cage and ring - USATODAY.com