UFC: Jorge Masvidal is Ben Askren’s fighter of the year – ‘unfortunately I think he deserves it’

There was a point last year that Ben Askren and Jorge Masvidal wouldn’t have even been able to peacefully get along if they saw each other in Whole Foods.

After a highly-charged build-up to their UFC 239 fight in July – which Masvidal sensationally won in five seconds with a flying knee knockout – there seemed to be no love lost.

But things have cooled between the two former foes, especially since Askren’s second retirement from MMA in November. “Gamebred” said he was “all right” with the former One Championship and Bellator champion. They also agreed Colby Covington should not have been making excuses after losing to Kamaru Usman, and now seem to have well and truly buried the hatchet.

“I already told you, it’s freaking Jorge,” Askren told ESPN’s Ariel Helwani, when asked who his 2019 fighter of the year was. “I’d like to pick Israel Adesanya over him, but I think that would be disingenuous.

“If I have to look at it from a non-biased perspective, it’s freaking Jorge.”

Masvidal shot to prominence last year with three stunning finishes, also knocking out Darren Till in March and getting a TKO via medical stoppage against Nate Diaz in the main event of UFC 244.

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The 35-year-old is now one of the hottest properties in MMA, with a title shot against welterweight champion Kamaru Usman and a big-money fight against Conor McGregor on the table.

“If you’d said that was gonna happen year a go, everybody would’ve said you’re on drugs or have some type of issue, unfortunately I think he deserves it,” Askren added.

But Askren wasn’t quite willing to give Masvidal the knockout of the year award, too. “I can’t do that, that would be too far,” he said. “Valentina [Shevchenko] over Jessica Eye.”