Masvidal has always been proud of his upbringing. He was born and raised in Miami and is the son of a Cuban father and a Peruvian mother.
Masvidal spent most of his early life visiting his father who was locked up in jail. His father entered the USA as a Cuban refugee when he was 14 and had since committed several crimes, including manslaughter.
“He did about five years in California for manslaughter, and then over here in Florida, he did about 18 years in prison for drug trafficking. So he led like a completely different lifestyle than me or than most people.” Masvidal told journalist Jeff Harder in a biography piece about him.
Living in a tough neighborhood without a father figure, Masvidal had a tough upbringing. “Gamebred” attempted to become a high-school wrestler, but failed to be eligible because of his declining grades.
He then took on boxing and MMA. His first noteworthy moments in combat sports happened in Kimbo Slice’s backyard promotion. Masvidal became famous for the videos where he takes on Kimbo’s protegee “Ray” in bare-knuckle boxing.
Despite the troubled upbringing, Masvidal always attempted to distance himself from the life that his father lived. The MMA star has always been reluctant to talk about his own run ins with the law.
In an interview with Ariel Helwani ahead of the infamous “BMF” event against Nate Diaz in 2019, Helwani was insistent about having Masvidal answer the question relating to the time he spent in jail.
“You have spent time in jail,” Helwani stated before the UFC fighter.
“We don’t need to talk about that. We’ll skip that one.” Masvidal uncomfortably responded.
“Why not? How old were you?” Helwani insisted.
“When I what? Went to Disney World for the first time?” The fighter responded.
“No, no. The other Disney… the complete opposite of that.” Helwani said.
“Those are rumors that I went to jail. That might not even be true, man.” The welterweight told the reporter trying to change the topic of conversation.
At one point during the interview, Helwani was finally able to get a partial answer about Masvidal’s jail time.
“I’m just curious why did you go to jail?” Helwani asked.
“Just being a dumb kid,” Masvidal said. “you know a lot of things growing up that weren’t the
best decision”
“some of them you know I don’t regret it because it was like in fear for my life you know?”
“I did certain things you know, whatever, it’s part of my journey – my history you know.”
“I’m not encouraging nobody to do illegal activities, not based on my history, but it’s what I
had to go through to get here.”
His arch-rival Colby Covingon also accused Masvidal of having been arrested before. In an interview with ESPN’s Brett Okamoto, Colby Covington claimed that Masvidal was a “thief” who served time in prison stealing a car.
“I’m not a felon like him,” Colby said. “I’m not a thief”
“if you want to talk about money let’s talk about him, he’s got two theft charges… grand theft he stole a car.”
“The guy’s a criminal.”
What is in Jorge Masvidal’s criminal record?
The Miami-Dade County keeps a database of all citizen charges as a public record. After researching Masvidal’s former charges, a person can find the following:
Illegally Carrying a Concealed Firearm
On June 21, 2004, Masvidal was charged with Illegally Carrying a Concealed Firearm. The case was filed on June 21 of 2004 and closed on March 1st of 2005.
The County database does not disclose jail time however, during that period, Masvidal did not perform in any professional fight.
Grand Theft Auto
On November 30th of 2004, Masvidal was charged with Grand Theft Auto charges. The case was closed less than a month later.
Trespassing a Property and Disorderly Intoxication
Perhaps this is the lightest of Masvidal’s charges. he was charged with two misdemeanors on December 27th of 2005. The case was closed on the same day.
Fast forward to 2022
Certainly the most famous of Masvidal’s charges were accrued earlier this month. The case was opened on March 24, 2022, and the investigation is ongoing.
The charge relates to the incident that Masvidal instigated against his rival Colby Covington outside of a steak house in Miami.