Jorge Masvidal has accepted a formal invite to the White House in Washington DC and said Donald Trump has "done a lot of crazy s--- that a lot of people wish they could do."

Visiting the Oval Office will punctuate an extraordinary 12 months for Masvidal, as the Floridian fighter was in the conversation for fighter of the year last year after victories over Darren Till, Ben Askren, and Nate Diaz.

During that time he has been opening up multiple streams of income as an ambassador for CBDmd and with his own branded Mezcal.

But he hopes his greatest payday is yet to come and is targeting a welterweight showdown with Conor McGregor.

McGregor fights Donald Cerrone at the UFC 246 event in Las Vegas on Saturday and Masvidal told us he will be Octagonside "having a good old time," working on fighting McGregor later in the year should he win this weekend.

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Continuing what's been a whirlwind year, Jorge Masvidal has accepted a formal invitation to the White House, praising US President Donald Trump as "one bad motherf-----."

Masvidal finished 2019 by beating Nate Diaz in front of Trump, who was watching Octagonside at the UFC 244 event in Madison Square Garden, New York, to win a standalone BMF belt which stands for the "baddest mother f-----" in the game.

Masvidal told Business Insider recently that it was "pretty cool" to have performed so well in front of Trump.

"He's going through a lot getting impeached but no matter your views on him, that's one bad mother f-----. He's done a lot of crazy s--- that a lot of people wish they could do."

Masvidal said he'll be visiting Trump in his Oval Office at the White House in Washington DC, taking the opportunity to announce the news while belittling a rival — the MAGA-hat wearing wrestler Colby Covington, who had his jaw broken by Kamaru Usman in a recent title bout at UFC 245

"We've got an invitation to the White House so we'll be stopping at some point. Yeah, we'll be going," Masvidal said. "Mr. Trump asked us to go. Not like other fighters who get their jaw broken and are begging, 'Please, please Mr. President take me to your Oval Office.' We got a formal invite and everything. He saw my work and thought, 'This one cool, young man let's bring this guy on by.'"

A White House visit caps an extraordinary 12 months for Masvidal

Masvidal enjoyed a thumping 2019. Photo by Michael Owens/Zuffa LLC/Zuffa LLC

There are few fighters who enjoyed as stellar a year as the UFC welterweight did in 2019. In a Business Insider list ranking boxers and mixed martial artists together, Masvidal finished as the third top fighter of the year. Forbes, CBS Sports, and a reader poll on Bloody Elbow all sided with the Floridian otherwise known as "Gamebred."

In March, Masvidal knocked out the British fighter Darren Till and earned Performance of the Night and Fight of the Night bonuses. In July, he scored the fastest knockout in UFC history by finishing Ben Askren with a 5-second flying knee. And in November he bludgeoned Diaz to such an extent that the doctor stopped the bout.

"Each of those wins is special in a different way," Masvidal told Business Insider. "Till was my comeback fight, been out for a year and coming off a loss. And if Darren Till doesn't happen, then Ben Askren doesn't happen. If Ben Askren doesn't happen, then Nate Diaz doesn't happen. Each of those fights is equally as important and great to me, one to the other."

It was a behind-the-scenes brawl with Leon Edwards at a UFC London show which holds a special place in Masvidal's heart, though.

"On a personal level that was super satisfying," Masvidal said. "This dude, all he's been doing is talking crap. He's not the type of guy who gonna go out and work you — what he does is talk about you, go to your boss and talk bad, say he do this, that, but he doesn't … he doesn't finish nobody. He talk that s--- about me, got put in his place, then said I assaulted him. The guy's confused, obviously."

Masvidal's expanding his streams of income

Masvidal is bringing his own Mezcal to the market, and has a partnership with CBDmd. YouTube / MMA Fighting

Like Conor McGregor, who built an MMA website called The MacLife, the whiskey brand Proper no. Twelve, and the clothing line August McGregor, Masvidal is developing multiple streams of incoming away from the UFC.

He has been taste-testing Mezcal and is bringing his own bottle to the market, and is an ambassador for CBDmd, a company which says it sells THC-free CBD products.

Masvidal speaks passionately about both. Mezcal, he says, is all about putting the cleanest stuff in the bottle. He even went to the factory multiple times before signing a deal to bring a Masvidal-branded Mezcal to the drinks industry in the coming months.

"We got with some people to have a good product, keeping it as natural as possible," he said. "The process of it is amazing. From agave plant, fermentation … it's a beautiful process which takes six to eight years, seed to bottle."

As well as enjoying Mezcal, Masvidal says he was a marijuana user but is more aware of what he puts in his body so he passes the performance-enhancing drug tests which ensures he is able to continue doing his day job — fighting.

He partnered with CBDmd is because they are THC-free, he said.

"At a certain time, no drugs allowed, so I couldn't smoke marijuana but the only thing I could have in my body to help with pain from day to day is CBD. Any minuscule amount of THC could get me banned from six months to two years and so anything I put in my body has to be sacred.

"There is nothing in the world like CBD for inflammation. Nobody takes more impact in sport than in my sport. If I'm not trying to kick someone in the head, they're trying to kick me in the head. That's a lot of impact. That happens every day. CBD drops the inflammation.

"Sometimes I can't put my shoe on because my foot is like a soccer ball but two days of treatment it goes down. It's crazy."

But his greatest payday is yet to come, he hopes

"I got some big plans in 2020," he said, nodding to the future.

That future may well involve Conor McGregor, the former two-weight UFC champion who returns to mixed martial arts against Donald Cerrone at the UFC 246 event at the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas on Saturday.

Masvidal will be Octagonside this weekend and hopes to lure the Irishman into a welterweight bout later in the year.

"We'll be there having a good old time," he said. "We're looking to make that fight."

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