Jorge Masvidal Opens as Betting Favorite Over Conor McGregor in Potential Matchup

Even though a prospective fight between Jorge Masvidal and Conor McGregor is nowhere close to being made, don't tell the sportsbooks that.

On Friday, sportsbook BetOnline opened a fight line on a potential bout between Masvidal (34-13) and McGregor (21-4), and gave the former street fighter the advantage. Masvidal opened as a -160 favorite, with McGregor as a +140 underdog. In essence, one would need to bet $160 on Masvidal in order to win $100, while someone betting $100 on McGregor would make $140 -- if each respective fighter won.

Masvidal is coming off of a sensational knockout of Ben Askren, breaking the record for the fastest knockout in UFC history by putting Askren away in five seconds. On Thursday, "Gamebred" called out McGregor, saying he wanted to "break his face" and collect "an easy paycheck."

McGregor has not won a bout since November 2016, when he knocked out Eddie Alvarez to become the first simultaneous two-division champion in company history. His last outing was a fourth-round neck crank submission loss to still-unbeaten Khabib Nurmagomedov for the lightweight belt. The loss still proved incredibly lucrative for the Irishman, who took home approximately $30 million for his record-setting pay-per-view at UFC 229 to earn a spot on the Forbes highest-paid celebrity list in 2019.

Additional lines also came out regarding each of the two men's potential opponents. One can bet on who they believe each fighter will face next. In terms of most to least likely, Nate Diaz (5/2) is the most heavily favored to meet McGregor next. As the odds grow less likely, the Diaz trilogy is followed by Masvidal (7/2), a Nurmagomedov rematch (4/1), another tilt with Dustin Poirier (11/2), a battle with Tony Ferguson (13/2) and lastly a match against fan-favorite Donald Cerrone (7/1).

As far as potential matchups go for Masvidal, the book's odds show that his most heavily favored next fight is against current welterweight champ Kamaru Usman (3/1). Like his counterpart, facing McGregor is 7/2, followed by a scrap with Diaz (17/4), a bout against Britain's Leon Edwards (9/2), a meeting with former lightweight kingpin Rafael dos Anjos (5/1) and finally a collision with former interim welterweight titleholder Colby Covington (8/1).