Ben Askren went to UFC London with high hopes, ready to fight the winner of Jorge Masvidal vs. Darren Till. In the lead-up, Askren made it clear that he wanted Till to win. Both Askren and Till were keen for a match-up and had a good time at Friday’s fan Q&A. Contrary to Askren’s plans, Masvidal scored a scintillating second-round knockout on Saturday night.
Though Till didn’t win, Askren still wants a piece of the winner – which in this case, is Masvidal.
Askren said during post-fight show;
“I would love to fight (Masvidal), but like I said, you heard that post-fight speech, I think he’s trying to find reasons not to fight me, he’s talking about fight for the belt — prior to this fight, he had two losses in a row. You don’t go from losing two [in a row] to winning one and then all of a sudden you have a belt when there’s all these guys in front of you. It just doesn’t work that way.”
Ben Askren is a former Bellator and ONE Championship titleholder. He debuted earlier this year in the UFC by defeating Robbie Lawler via controversial first-round submission at UFC 235. He pointed fellow welterweight contender Leon Edwards as a potential next foe. Edwards defeated Gunnar Nelson via unanimous decision in Saturday’s night co-main event extending his UFC winning streak to seven straight.
Askren has also put up a list of names he wants to fight and said;
“No one likes Colby, I don’t like Colby. I would love to skip over him and fight Usman, but it doesn’t seem like Usman wants that either. He’s not keeping that same energy, as the kids say. I would love to have him call me out. He didn’t. So, again, I thought Till was going to win tonight. I think we’ll go reevaluate. I’d love to fight Masvidal. I’d love to fight Leon Edwards.
“I would like someone [ranked] higher [than Edwards], but if that’s who they gave me instead, I would definitely say yes, what I was surprised about was his ability to do well in the grappling department. I thought that was the place that Gunnar Nelson had a huge advantage in, and Leon Edwards not only got takedowns, he controlled the position on top, he stuffed all of Gunnar Nelson’s takedowns.”
The post-fight brawl between Masvidal and Edwards at the O2 Arena on Saturday started a new rivalry. The welterweights might be ready to settle their differences in a grudge match.
Such a turn of events would leave Askren without an obvious foe to fight next. However, Ben Askren said he is open to anything. The only fight he would not be particularly interested in is a rematch with Lawler.
“The first guy I asked [the UFC] for was Darren Till actually, and then they said how about Robbie Lawler, I said, ‘Listen, I’m here to fight everybody, so if you want me to fight Robbie Lawler, I’ll fight.’ It didn’t take more than a phone call, right? I’ll fight Robbie Lawler, no big deal. But I didn’t want to. And so now I did it once and they want me to go do again. I just, I don’t see how that moves me farther up, and that’s where I want to go, I want to move farther up.”
Askren further added,
“I genuinely don’t know, they haven’t brought the fight to me yet. They haven’t asked me to do it. I said I’d reevaluate after tonight, so I guess tomorrow maybe we’ll be talking to them and we’ll figure out what’s going to happen.”
