“There were some areas where I didn’t give him enough credit, and some where I felt – with a better training camp – I could definitely surpass him. I showed my wrestling on six days’ notice, I’m not too easy to take down or hold on the ground,” Masvidal said.

“I made a lot of mistakes, and tried to fight in spots since I didn’t feel my gas tank was the greatest … he was able to get in the clinch and take it back into his world. But I’m not gonna take nothing away from him. He won fair and square. I’ll do whatever it takes to get back in front of that man and get my hand raised.”

The Cuban-American Masvidal conceded that the 33-year-old Usman – who is now on a 12-fight win streak in the UFC – had an “OK” jab and impressive level-changing and fence-leaning techniques. Despite stuffing several takedowns, Masvidal was nonetheless disappointed with his performance.

“I wanna take his head off even more now that he beat me. But we don’t have to promote the next fight like that – talk about religion or ethnicity, nothing like that. He said some things that weren’t necessary and I said some things that weren’t the best. I just think about the future generations. You don’t have to talk s*** or disrespect a man’s religion to promote fights or get pay-per-views,” he said.

“Right now I’m [expletive] very butt-hurt. I wanna do some sprints, I wanna get on the treadmill, hit the punching bags, take out my frustrations, elevate my cardio to a new level. I know I could do more.

“A lot of people will make the excuse for me, six days' notice, but once you sign that dotted line, you shouldn't sign unless you're in the best shape to compete for a world title. I just feel I should have been in overall better shape.

“I wanna run sprints right now until I throw up. I'm very upset.”