On Friday, UFC Welterweight star Jorge Masvidal called Colin Kaepernick a “coward” on social media.
Masvidal may have lost his last fight in the Octagon, but the fighting spirit is alive and well.
Masvidal commented on a post from Turning Point USA via his Instagram Stories. The post showed Kaepernick from 2016 wearing a Fidel Castro shirt adjacent to a picture of the protests in Cuba.
In a post published to the UFC star’s Instagram, Masvidal wrote, “Know ur history and facts cowards like this fool should be sent to live in Cuba see what they say after a day there.”
Kaepernick wore a t-shirt with a phrase under the pictures of the two, “Like minds think alike,” depicting a meeting between Malcolm X and Castro in 2016.
Kaepernick was poised to educate the US on its oppressive history, then he wore a Fidel Castro shirt. #irony pic.twitter.com/M2KzSoNkbS
— Jordan Allott (@JordanAllott) August 30, 2016
During a conference call before the San Francisco 49ers’ game against the Miami Dolphins, a Miami Herald reporter asked Kaepernick about the shirt.
Kaepernick praised Castro’s education system when he was asked about the shirt.
Kaepernick said, “One thing that Fidel Castro did do is they have the highest literacy rate because they invest more in their education system than they do in their prison system, which we do not do here, even though we’re fully capable of doing that.”
The damage has been done when Kaepernick seemed to walk back his statements after the game against the Dolphins.
“What I said was I agree in the investment in education. I also agree [with] the investment of free universal healthcare, trying to push the narrative that I was supportive of the oppressive things he did is not true,” Kaepernick told reporters.
The post of Masvidal has erupted in Cuba that comes as a massive protest, the communist dictatorship that controls the country the citizens’ demand it to an end.
According to The New York Times: “In a country known for repressive crackdowns on dissent, the rallies were widely viewed as astonishing, activists and analysts called it the first time that so many people had openly protested against the Communist government since the so-called Maleconazo uprising, which exploded in the summer of 1994 into a huge wave of Cubans leaving the country by sea.”
The UFC fighter expresses his support for the Cuban people and took it to Twitter, earlier in the week.
Masvidal said on a video posted in Twitter, “My father escaped Cuba when he was 14 years old, and I’ve only heard the horror stories since I could process thoughts of how s***** this communist regime, killing machine is. So I just want to shed some light on Cuba. Big SOS signal for them.”
“This oppression has been going on for 61 years. It’s not just because of the pandemic, or it’s not just because they ran out of medicine, because they’ve been out of medicine, they’ve been out of resources and food, because of the corrupt government, the extreme corruption over there where only a few at the top eat and everybody else has to suffer. Those days have to come to an end,” he continued.
Masvidal went on to call for the entire world to “rally behind Cuba.”
“I think it’s time for the whole world to rally behind Cuba … I think it’s up to us to put the word out there. It’s the people against these corrupt governments. Let’s defeat these evil Communist m***** f******.”
#SOSCuba English pic.twitter.com/on5Z25H2q0
— Jorge Masvidal UFC (@GamebredFighter) July 13, 2021
Masvidal is currently ranked seventh in the UFC Welterweight Division with a record of 35-15-0.
Sources: DailyWire, WashingtonPost, SI, NYtimes