UFC: Ben Askren says Jorge Masvidal still owes him a thank you after 5-second flying knee KO
- Askren says he did not see Masvidal’s surge in popularity coming, and congratulates him for ‘actually showing up to media opportunities’
- ‘Are we gonna be friends? No. Either we ignore each other or he attacks me and we fight again’
Jorge Masvidal’s stunning five-second flying knee KO of Ben Askren certainly catapulted him into MMA superstardom. And Askren thinks he’s owed a thank you.
The former Olympic wrestler’s undefeated streak in the cage came to a very abrupt end in July, with Masvidal setting the record for fastest knockout in UFC history and becoming one of the company’s hottest properties.
“Gamebred” will face Nate Diaz in the main event at UFC 244 at Madison Square Garden for the “BMF” title belt, and is enjoying the limelight with a surge in mainstream popularity.
“I really did not see it coming,” Askren told Ariel Helwani’s MMA Show. “He’s still not said thank you.
“No, if you think about him going into that March fight with Darren Till, barely anyone was talking about him. He hadn’t fought in a year, he’d lost his last two fights. That’s MMA, the landscape can charge in a heartbeat. It can and it does very frequently.
“Obviously since my fight he’s got a lot of great media opportunities, he’s actually taking advantage of them, he’s showing up to them which is part of the job. I think him or Nate will be a giant negotiating piece between Colby [Covington] and Marty [welterweight champion Kamaru Usman].”
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Askren’s dig about media opportunities was in reference to Masvidal no-showing a pre-fight press conference before their UFC 239 bout.
The 35-year-old – a former champion in Bellator and One Championship – dubbed himself the “king of UFC press conferences” in a tweet. Of course, after his savage KO, Masvidal retweeted it and added “still undefeated at press conferences”.
“I’ve already forgotten about it, I’ve got it out of my life,” added Askren, who looks to bounce back against Brazilian jiu-jitsu veteran Demian Maia at UFC Singapore on October 26. “I realised I blew that opportunity. I’ve got to deal with the reality I’m in.”
While Masvidal has promised he would “slap up” Askren if he ran into him at Whole Foods, Askren told Helwani he would probably just ignore “Gamebred” should they run into each other.
“He might try to attack me so we might fight or something, I’m not sure,” Askren said. “It seems like something he’d wanna do. If I ignored him, he ignored me or whatever, I’m good with that.
“Are we gonna be friends? No. I highly doubt that. It’s gonna be the case, I see either we ignore each other or he attacks me and we fight again, one or the other.”
