Former Bellator and ONE welterweight champ Ben Askren’s time with the UFC grabbed headlines for all the wrong reasons.
Askren is best remembered as the victim of one of the most spectacular knockouts in the sport’s history: a flying knee in the opening seconds of his bout with Jorge Masvidal. The flying knee made Masvidal, previously a journeyman, a superstar, and tanked Askren’s credibility in the UFC.
Ben Askren Wants Rematch With “Embarrassed” Jorge Masvidal
Now, Masvidal is calling for a rematch, under boxing rules, and Askren appeared on Daniel Cormier’s YouTube channel to point out why that’s a terrible idea.
“That’s why he won’t do it. So he’s not scared of fighting and he’s not scared of the pain, right? But there’s multiple fears. What he’s scared of is being embarrassed.
Right? I’ll pull his hair, I’ll rub his face in the ground for about 15 minutes and leave him with some mat burns here. He’ll be real embarrassed.
There’s lots of fears we can have in life. We, as men, Daniel, we can have lots of fears. I’ll tell you what I’m scared of. I’m scared of snakes. I’m scared of sharks.
I won’t go in deep water, I don’t mess with them sharks, that’s their house. Right? Jorge Masvidal, he’s not scared of a fight, he’s not scared of a physical altercation. He’s scared of being embarrassed and losing status, that’s what he’s scared of.”
Given Masvidal’s retirement from the UFC, Askren is baffled as to why his old foe recently took to TMZ to call him out for a rematch.
“I don’t know why he brought it up again, because it was dead to me and then he said he wanted to box me. Like, why would I do that? That’s dumb.
But you know what? When he said he’ll retire, I’m like, OK, whatever. That’s the only fight I want. I don’t want to fight anyone else, I don’t really like fighting anymore. I coach wrestling and that’s it. But if he wants to fight, I would love to fight him.
And the first time, what I had to resort to, because Daniel, we all have egos and the one thing that drives fighters crazy — because if you fight in a cage, you’re probably a really tough guy — is when you start being really dismissive and just treating them like a b****.
People can’t handle that, and they’ve got to puff their feathers out, and they’ve got to be like, ‘Alright, I’m going to get you.’ And that was what I had to do the first time, so I might have to start doing that again.”
