UFC star Jorge Masvidal demands release: 'Let me go and let me see if I'm worth it'

June 5 (UPI) -- Jorge Masvidal, one of the UFC's hottest names, took to social media Friday to voice his displeasure with ongoing contract talks with the promotion.

Masvidal was expected to fight Kamaru Usman for the UFC welterweight title in July, but negotiations between Masvidal and the UFC have fallen apart.

"I'm not an independent contractor if I can't go anywhere else to make a living," Masvidal wrote on Twitter. "Let me go and let me see if I'm worth it."

It marked the second consecutive week that the UFC sparred with one of its biggest stars. Last week, UFC light heavyweight champion Jon "Bones" Jones demanded his release and said he would relinquish his belt.

Jones and Masvidal are both represented by the Kawa brothers, Malki and Abe, of First Round Management.

"I fought in backyards and those dudes never disrespected me the way I'm being now [by the UFC]," Masvidal wrote.

Following the UFC 250 weigh-ins Friday, UFC president Dana White told reporters that "everybody wants more money" and other sports leagues are currently negotiating with players over salary reductions due to seasons that have been shortened because of the coronavirus pandemic.

"You don't have to fight," White said. "Anybody that doesn't want to fight doesn't have to fight, including Masvidal and Jon Jones and all these other guys. And it doesn't have to be because of a pandemic. These guys are independent contractors. ... We're not begging people to fight."

Masvidal responded to White's comments, saying that he shouldn't compare the UFC to other leagues, which pay players "half the revenue they generate." UFC fighters don't have a union.

"We are negotiating from like what 12 percent to maybe 18 percent of revenue we generate?" Masvidal wrote. "We are negotiating down from way under 50 percent of the revenue. I don't get paid on the hot dog you sell in the arena or the logo on the cage. I've never made a dollar on a ticket you sell.

"I get punched in the face for a living and even I know the pandemic or what's left of it has nothing to do with it."

Masvidal is coming off a third-round TKO victory over Nate Diaz at UFC 244 in November. The win earned him the "BMF" title, which was specially commissioned for the fight.