Despite what many may be led to believe, there is a flawlessly dominant wrestler outside of the UFC that may be a lot more well known than people assume. That wrestler turned undefeated multi-time MMA champion is none other than ‘Funky’ Ben Askren.
Askren went 18-0 in his professional career before semi-retiring this past November. Funky Ben was most well known for being the dominant champion of both Bellator and ONE Championship.
As mentioned, he’s now semi-retired. Meaning he’s still willing to fight…it just has to be against the best option.
Most notably, Askren has called for a fight with one of the MMA all-time greats, Georges St-Pierre and Askren has gone as far to proclaim that he believes the two will end up fighting in the UFC by next year’s end. The fans are interested in this idea as well as evidenced by a poll that BJPenn.com’s own Chris Taylor conducted back in November after GSP’s big middleweight title victory.
The poll asked who you would like to see St-Pierre fight next and closed with 7435 votes. The options were interim UFC middleweight champion at the time, Robert Whittaker(30% of the votes), UFC welterweight champion, Tyron Woodley(18%), UFC lightweight champion at the time, Conor McGregor(21%) and the poll winner with 31%, Ben Askren.
Who would you like to see @GeorgesStPierre fight next? @robwhittakermma @TWooodley @TheNotoriousMMA @Benaskren
— Chris Taylor (@CTaylor_96) November 28, 2017
However, there was a time where Askren also had some interest in competing against one of GSP’s top proteges and teammates, the current Bellator champion, Rory MacDonald. Around the time of St-Pierre vs Johny Hendricks, Askren found himself looking for a new home and hoping it would be the UFC where MacDonald was quickly rising to the top in his division.
“I would fight for free and retire from the sport of MMA [If I lost] because that’s how confident I am that I will beat Rory MacDonald.” Askren told Bleacher Report in 2013
And now, it seems that there is interest on both sides for this potential clash between current and former Bellator welterweight kings as the two exchanged words on Twitter.
im good with that to
advertisement – continue reading below— Rory MacDonald (@rory_macdonald) April 18, 2018
i have asked @ScottCoker about getting you in bellator for a fight, i guesse you need to do your part
— Rory MacDonald (@rory_macdonald) April 18, 2018
i disagree
— Rory MacDonald (@rory_macdonald) April 18, 2018
@mmarcopoloo: @rory_macdonald i see u want champ vs champ. how about @Benaskren??
MacDonald: im good with that to
Askren: Tell your boss
MacDonald: i have asked @ScottCoker about getting you in bellator for a fight, i guesse you need to do your part
Askren: You think you could go the distance? I think I finish@you in round 3, the fight looks similar to what Condit did to you in round 3
MacDonald: i disagree
For the ‘Red King’ Rory MacDonald, he just recently became the Bellator 170-pound champion when he defeated Douglas Lima by unanimous decision back in January. Askren, on the other hand, held the Bellator title from 2010-2013 and defended it four times(including a win over Lima as well).
Would you be interested in seeing Askren return to the house he made his name in to challenge their new king?
This article first appeared on BJPenn.com on 4/18/2018.