Ben Askren News

Jordy McElroy - July 18, 2018

Brendan Schaub drew a line in the sand with UFC President Dana White last Thursday in what might have been the most visceral social media clap-back of the year. A minor disagreement quickly escalated into all-out war between the UFC boss and former UFC heavyweight. It wasn’t the first time a former or current employee has raked White through the coals publically, and if history has taught us anything, it won’t be the last, either.

Tom Taylor - May 1, 2018

Last weekend, in the first bout of the Bellator 198 main card, Brazilian jiu-jitsu star Dillon Danis stepped into the cage for his first mixed martial arts bout. Though he took a few licks early in the fight, Danis ultimately came out on top in impressive fashion, tapping his foe with a toehold in the first frame. In his post-fight interview with cage-side commentator “Big” John McCarthy Danis shot for the stars with a callout of ostensibly retired former Bellator and ONE welterweight champion Ben Askren, who has recently been angling for big-ticket fights with Rory MacDonald and Georges St-Pierre.

Tom Taylor - April 30, 2018

Over the last few weeks, undefeated former Bellator and ONE welterweight titleholder Ben Askren has expressed interest in ending his retirement for a fight with Rory MacDonald in Bellator, or Georges St-Pierre in the UFC. Chatri Sityodtong, the Chairman and CEO of ONE Championship (where Askren is still technically under contract) seemed willing to work with Bellator to allow Askren to fight Rory MacDonald.

Chris Taylor - April 29, 2018

Dillon Danis calls out Ben Askren following successful Bellator MMA debut, “Funky” responds accordingly Dillon Danis picked up his first career mixed martial arts victory at last night’s Bellator 198 event in Chicago.

Justin Golightly - March 13, 2018

While everyone but Georges St-Pierre contemplates his next opponent, Ben Askren has been campaigning for this fight mostly because people won’t stop asking him about it. The UFC on FOX account seems to mention him bi-weekly now and Askren is shrugging and RTing every time it happens. On the latest editions of The MMA Hour, he not only thinks the fight goes down in 2019, but runs play-by-play on exactly how he defeats the two-division UFC champion. “Here’s what I think happens, because the one thing I have over [Georges St-Pierre] is I have the wrestling advantage and I don’t get tired, and that’s usually what he’s relied on in the last, say, 10 to 12 fights or so. I think he’s very tough to take down early. I think he’s very tough. I think he’s probably going to win the striking battle, but one of the things, I never take a lot of damage. I just don’t get hit a lot. That’s what I’m good at.”

Justin Golightly - March 8, 2018

Georges St-Pierre finally had his first lengthy interview since a health battle forced him to bow out of the middleweight division and vacate the title he just won. The multi-million dollar question is who St-Pierre would fight if he comes back and which division he’d be in. It’s not a simple question. All of the fights that media members and fans would have thought could be possibilities, St-Pierre shot them down for one reason or another. The only man he seemed most interested in was Ben Askren, only to then claim his lack of exposure would be why he wouldn’t fight him. “[Georges St-Pierre]’s contradicting himself and when you say something like, ‘I only care about my legacy.’ GSP has made many, many millions and if he’s been smart and saved them, a few more millions ain’t going to help him that much. That’s what most athletes have to realize and I didn’t make nearly as much money as GSP, but I realize from my early days growing up and I’ve said this many times now, most athletes stay too long and most athletes spend too much money. For GSP, if he wants to say it’s all about his legacy, I’m the guy he has to fight if he wants to grow that legacy because I’m the person people are pointing at and saying, ‘That is the guy that can beat GSP.'”

Drake Riggs - March 5, 2018

“Ben Askren, I don’t understand why he’s not in the UFC. He’s one of the best in the world and I think it has to do with maybe a problem he has with Dana White, you know but he’s one of the best fighters in the world. If there is a guy that in my career, for my legacy that would have been good to fight, it’d be Ben Askren because he beat everybody. All the guys at Bellator, he beat all the champions outside the UFC but unfortunately, I think he has a fallout with Dana and he never had a chance to fight in the UFC and therefore is stuck. Never went to the value that he’s supposed to be at.

Justin Golightly - February 22, 2018

Ben Askren has made it no secret his retirement has one, big Canadian asterisk. He’s only coming back to fight Georges St-Pierre to finally prove to all the naysayers that, despite the fact that he never fought in the UFC, that he’s the very best welterweight in the entire world. But what if that fight can’t happen? What about a money fight with the likes of Nate Diaz or even Conor McGregor? Don’t get your hopes up. Askren essentially shrugs at the names and says he’s going to stay on course in campaigning for a fight with GSP. “Nate Diaz sucks. I mean, yeah. [Conor] McGregor is barely the best in the world. I mean, the guy beat up Nate Diaz barely a couple of times and Nate Diaz himself is a very mediocre UFC fighter. There is no way you can argue that sentiment because all you have to do is look at [Diaz’s] record. The record shows he’s a very middle-of-the-road UFC fighter, he’s a 500 guy. He wins half, he loses half. Sure, he’s had some good wins, but he’s also had some terrible losses.”

Justin Golightly - February 17, 2018

The year of the superfight is truly upon us. Whether they all go down or not, three giant fights between champions in different divisions are expected to fight each other. Whether this is the UFC’s big explosion like the death of a star, or their metamorphosis to survive in the future, it’s clear that things are changing. So, if we’re going to crack open the door to allow for epic fights like these, why not just kick it off the hinges? Let’s take down the political boundaries between organizations and have champions be able to fight other champions to really decide who are the top fighters on our humble spinning rock. Unfortunately, that’s impossible until some sort of MMA Ali Act is passed. However, there is no red tape on our imagination, so this is what we’ll explore in the very first edition of Fight Think. 5.  Bellator World Grand Prix winner vs. Stipe Miocic/Daniel Cormier winner (Bellator heavyweight champion vs UFC heavyweight champion)

Drake Riggs - February 15, 2018

The “UFC” and “Ben Askren” have never been two things that have been synonymous with each other. At least not in a positive light… But lately, now that Askren is free of fighting obligations as a “semi-retired” fighter, talks between fans and pundits have heated up, maybe more so than ever before. Including from Askren himself who has stated he wants to fight Georges St-Pierre and that that’s the only fight that could make him come back. Askren even stated recently that he believes the fight will happen by next year.

Drake Riggs - February 12, 2018

As it stands right now, labeling the career of undefeated Bellator and ONE  welterweight champion, Ben Askren a “mystery” wouldn’t feel very outrageous. How so? Everyone who has ever seen Askren fight can see how very clearly talented he was and is. The mystery just remains, “exactly how good was he?” Askren capped off his eighteen fight career in November fighting for ONE Championships and never stepping foot into a UFC octagon. Despite making it clear he’s retired, Askren has still left the door open to a possibility. Proving he truly was the best regardless of whether he fought for the UFC or not. To do so, Askren believes he must face one of the greatest of all time across all weight classes, Georges St-Pierre. Askren made a bold prediction when speaking with MMAJunkie today:

Justin Golightly - January 24, 2018

Once again, Tony Ferguson and Khabib Nurmagomedov are booked in the single best lightweight fight that is available in MMA at this point. At UFC 223, whether it be for the interim or the undisputed title, this clash is going to be insane. It’s crushing, combat Sambo up against unorthodox striking and 10th Planet jiu jitsu. It’s a match-up that fascinated a lot of people, including Joe Rogan and Ben Askren. Former ONE FC and Bellator welterweight champion Askren recently weighed-in on the epic fight and one of MMA’s best wrestlers ended up backing the Russian smashing machine. “[Khabib Nurmagoemdov] was a like a frickin’ Terminator though [in the fight at UFC 219]. He was chasing [Edson Barboza]. It was insane. He’s fantastic. […] I think he beats up Tony [Ferguson]. That’s just my opinion. I’ve underestimated Tony before so I could be wrong again, I just think — again, trump card. I think Tony’s one of those guys who is pretty good everywhere: Pretty damn solid wrestling, high level jiu jitsu, but I see Khabib’s wrestling being better than Tony’s wrestling.”

Tom Taylor - December 19, 2017

It’s no secret that Ben Askren – long regarded as one of the best fighters outside the UFC – is not a fan of UFC President Dana White. Speaking on a recent episode of Submission Radio, Askren reiterated his feelings on White, and he pulled no punches. “Dana White’s a scumbag, I don’t take anything he says with any value,” Askren said (h/t BloodyElbow). “He’s very, very insecure and he abhors anyone who won’t cater to his every whim.”

Justin Golightly - December 14, 2017

Ever since Ben Askren walked away from combat sports, he made no mistake that only a fight with the best in the world could bring him back out of retirement. He threw the offer down on the table for a fight with Georges St-Pierre, but not a lot of people had faith it happened. Then, St-Pierre relinquished the UFC middleweight title and left the division leaving only two options: Retire for good or go back to welterweight. After hearing this news, he doubled down on his offer and even was willing to put some Bitcoin on the line. In his latest interview with Submission Radio, he talked in depth about St-Pierre and how he’s a stylistic nightmare for the former two-division champ. “Wasn’t that what you expected? I expected that [Georges St-Pierre would vacate the UFC middleweight title]. I knew that, I mean, my suspicion was that there’s no way that he’s ever going to fight again at middleweight. This was the one time he would because I think he had a good idea that he was gonna beat Michael Bisping, but there’s no way he wanted to fight Robert Whittaker. He didn’t want that fight. So, I definitely think we’ll never see him in middleweight again. Now, will we see him fight again? I’m not sure. GSP versus Conor [McGregor] is not a super fight. Conor McGregor is 2-1 in his last three fights against someone who is not even very good, so I don’t think Conor deserves a super fight against Georges. I see it pretty simply. Georges doesn’t like tough fights. And when Georges gets in a tough fight, he takes people down repeatedly and he’s very good at it, very good at it. He’s very good at maintaining top position. I’m not gonna go away easily, I will be a tough fight and Georges will not repeatedly take me down. And if he somehow takes me down he absolutely will not keep me down.”

Justin Golightly - December 8, 2017

When Ben Askren retired with a squeaky clean record at ONE: Immortal Pursuit, he left an asterisk above the ‘R’ word. He said that the only thing that could lure him back was a shot at the best welterweight in the world, not the third best, not the second best, but the best. The only problem with that was that Georges St-Pierre was a middleweight now and Tyron Woodley is too great of a friend for Askren to look for a fight with. However, as of last night, St-Pierre is no longer a middleweight and has vacated his middleweight title. That was enough for Askren to double-down on his call-out. @GeorgesStPierre if you want to make it more interesting I’ll put my bitcoin against yours as a side bet that you don’t make it 5 rounds against me.

Justin Golightly - November 28, 2017

After demolishing Japanese MMA veteran Shinya Aoki at ONE: Immortal Pursuit, Ben Askren rode his funky train into the sunset, retiring from MMA for good. …Or maybe not. Freshly-retired Askren took to Twitter to plant the seed of a possible return fight with Georges St-Pierre. If you think this opens the door to a bunch of other potential match-ups, you’re wrong. For Askren, it’s either the “best in the world” or he’s happy to move on to a new chapter outside of the cage. “I’ve never said I’m retired, period. I’ve said that I’m retired with the caveat that if I somehow get to fight to prove that I’m No. 1 in the world, I will take that opportunity. I’m not gonna fight to be No. 3 or 5 or 7 or anything else. Just to be No. 1, that’s it. It’s not really a money thing, it’s a pride thing. There’s this other guy who was a very famous welterweight named Georges St-Pierre who doesn’t seem to have a dance partner right now and doesn’t seem to want to fight Tyron [Woodley] or Robert Whittaker. So I figure, he doesn’t want to get hit hard, I don’t hit that hard. So we might as well just get in there and get after it.“If he needs a dance partner, I’m more than willing to do it. I’ll come to Montreal and fit the bill for him. We’ll fill out the Bell Centre.”

Justin Golightly - November 25, 2017

He came, he wrestled, he got funky, now he’s gone. Ben Askren was able to take out multiple-time lightweight champion and grappling guru Shinya Aoki at ONE Championship’s Immortal Pursuit in his retirement fight. He walks away from the sport with little to no damage and boasts an undefeated record of 18 wins, 11 of those victories being finishes. While he never got to display his skills inside the UFC’s Octagon, Askren is completely content with how his career has played out. That isn’t to say that an asterisk isn’t always above the ‘R’ word, but it would have to be something massive to get Askren to fight again. @GeorgesStPierre how’s the spring weather in Montreal? I hear it’s a nice time to test your true Martial Arts skills

Justin Golightly - November 24, 2017

Today at an historic ONE Championship event, Ben Askren leaves MMA for good. His retirement match was against a legend in his own right, grappling wizard and multiple-time former champion, Shinya Aoki. Askren slammed the former ONE lightweight champion Aoki down after he pulled guard, then it was basically all over from there. After some thundering ground and pound, the referee stepped in and stopped the fight, awarding Askren a technical knockout for his final victory in MMA. “Listen, I told someone this the other day, and this is something I ca0n be totally proud about, I hope I don’t eff this up while I’m telling it live: I have never turned down a fight, I have never pulled out of a fight, I have never missed weight, I have never failed a drug test, and I have never lost. And I don’t know that anyone else can say that, ever.” —Ben Askren on a previous episode of The MMA Hour.