It wasn’t too long ago that Bellator welterweight Lorenz Larkin stepped into the cage with one of the UFC’s top stars.

Back in 2016, Larkin faced Jorge Masvidal at UFC Fight Night 88 and edged him out via split decision. Since then, Masvidal has won five of his last seven and is coming off back-to-back knockouts over Darren Till and Ben Askren, the latter of which broken the UFC record for fastest knockout at 5 seconds and catapulted him into stardom.

That set up Masvidal for a huge main event vs. Nate Diaz for the “Baddest Motherf****r” belt at UFC 244, and Larkin is happy to see the recent rise of his former foe.

“When I see Jorge (Masvidal) getting all the love now, I’m pumped for him,” Larkin told MMA Junkie. “I’m happy for him. It kind of shows that this MMA game, you can be on top of it, on bottom of it. It’s so funny: All it takes is one fight, and the analogy is so real as far as when people say you’re as good as your last fight, and that’s how MMA is. It doesn’t matter what you’ve done, you’re as good as your last fight.”

Masvidal, like Larkin, who headlines Bellator 229 next week vs. Andrey Koreshkov, has fought the who’s who of MMA. But he’s only been getting mainstream notoriety in 2019, even though he’s been actively competing as a professional since 2003.

The way Larkin see it, “Gamebred” never got the credit he deserved.

“There aren’t even too many people who knew about Masvidal like that,” Larkin said. “People who really follow MMA do. Casual fans, they don’t know who Masvidal is. All it took is that one knockout. It’s just so crazy. Something like that could change your life. He’s been putting in the work for so long, and just fighting so many good guys, that it took a knee to get him the paycheck now that he deserves. It’s crazy.”