If we learn one thing from this raw footage, it is that Jorge “Gamebred” Masivdal was destined to fight.

Although known to combat sport fans for his recent successes at the elite level of MMA, Masvidal initially made his name scrapping it on the streets of South Florida. In the video below we see him take on a student of Kimbo Slice known only as Ray.

Ray knocks out a muscular man in less than a minute in the opening of the video and then it appears that Jorge Masvidal emerges from the crowd to challenge the victorious Ray. Masvidal is far smaller than his opponent – he has fought primarily as a lightweight (155 pounds/70 kilograms) in MMA – and Ray towers over him.

Despite the size disadvantage, Masvidal thoroughly outboxes his man for several minutes, by the end of which Ray is taking deep breaths and moving noticeably slower. As the tables continue to turn in Masvidal’s favour, Ray absorbs more and more damage, eventually eating a right hand to the body and walking away from the fight. This would be considered a technical knockout loss under the unified rules of mixed martial arts.

Jorge Masvidal and Ray would go on to meet in a rematch, this time in a backyard rather than a parking lot, but Masvidal would once again win by stoppage.

In a piece for Fightland, Doug Merlino writes:

“As a kid, Masvidal had wanted to be a boxer. He discovered wrestling in high school. His biggest regret was failing to get the grades to stay eligible for the team—he dreamed of competing for a D1 school. Instead, he found MMA, which incorporated his two passions, and decided he was going to be a professional fighter.

He started training and let it be known he’d do anything for exposure, including jumping into the growing South Miami street fighting scene. That’s how he got called one afternoon in 2004, when he was 19, and told to get himself over to a laundromat parking lot. He was at McDonald’s at the time. He finished lunch, drove over, took off his shirt, and got into a fierce scrap with a Kimbo Slice protégé named Ray.

For Masvidal, it was just another fight. He didn’t think anything about it until more than a year later, when a friend called and asked if that was him on YouTube. His two fights with Ray were on their way to racking up hundreds of thousands of views, Masvidal’s first notoriety.

Masvidal considered street fighting a joke; it was certainly not what he wanted to be known for.”

Jorge Masvidal has since gone on to compete in more professional venues, most notably the UFC, where he holds a 6-3 record against world class competition.

source: fightland.vice.com