Frankie Edgar has finally got a fight after his anticipated scrap with UFC featherweight champion Max Holloway has fallen through twice. At UFC 222 in just under two weeks, he’ll test his infamous pressure, boxing and grinding wrestling on slick Brian Ortega. From one wrestler to another, Edgar recently spoke up about Ben Askren since the UFC on FOX Twitter account had curiously mentioned the former Bellator and ONE welterweight champion. He him a lot of respect and thinks he could have a shot against St-Pierre.
“I would love to see [Ben] Askren in the UFC. I think it’s a shame that he hasn’t been here. I think people, or at least Dana [White] and whoever the UFC brass don’t want to see him go out there and wrestle guys to death and whatnot, but he’s out there wrestling and finishing guys now. The dude doesn’t get hit and it’s pretty impressive. Yeah, that’s like the, ‘Who would win out of [Georges St-Pierre] or him?’ That’s something people have been talking about for a long time and he’s got the ability to make that fight very interesting just because of his wrestling ability. Typically Georges is the guy with the wrestling ability, but against Ben I think Ben might have a hand in there.”—Frankie Edgar speaking on the MMA Roasted podcast.
Now LITERALLY THE BIGGEST post in the history of the @UFCONFOX twitter handle. With Ronda and Connor retired I might be the biggest damn star in this sport. Stats don’t lie. https://t.co/wOCRUoabKV
— Ben Askren (@Benaskren) February 19, 2018
Despite armchair spectators and Dana White clowning Ben Askren for his ‘boring’ style, it seems like the fans have spoken. Just as Frankie Edgar said, he finishes guys. He also literally rode former Bellator champion Andrey Koreshkov like he was in a rodeo. If we lived in a different world with the organizational boundaries disintegrated between MMA promotions, Georges St-Pierre would have already happened probably three times. Unfortunately, it hasn’t and may never happen. The fans may be the only ones who can shift the minds of the UFC Powers That Be.
This article first appeared on BJPenn.com on 2/20/2018.