At UFC Newark, on August 3, top welterweight Colby Covington will look to reestablish himself as the next man in line for the champion Kamaru Usman with a big win over Robbie Lawler. Ben Askren, one of Covington’s most vocal haters, believes this is a fight that could go either way.

Check out what he had to say about the matchup below (via Heidi Fang)

Ben Askren on his relationship with Dana & the Lawler-Covington matchup. pic.twitter.com/VWsCZOeX1M

— Heidi Fang (@HeidiFang) July 4, 2019

“I think it’s a tough fight for both of them,” Askren said. “Colby does a good job putting pressure on [opponents], but he also gets tagged a lot. Robbie hits really hard, but he sometimes rests against the cage a lot. So I really do think it could go either way.”

Ben Askren has an interesting perspective on this Covington vs. Lawler matchup having just fought the latter at UFC 235 in March. This bout, which marked Askren’s long-awaited UFC debut, nearly ended in disaster for him, as he was brutalized by Lawler in the bout’s opening seconds. As the action wore on, however, Askren regained control of the bout and won with an impressive — if slightly controversial — bulldog choke.

Askren was rewarded for this victory with another high stakes fight. He’ll take on Covington’s friend and training partner Jorge Masvidal on the main card of UFC 239, this Saturday night in Las Vegas. If he wins, he believes he’ll jump the welterweight contendership line, and get the next crack at Kamaru Usman — particularly if Covington is anything short of flawless against Lawler.

Ben Askren is currently 19-0 overall. Prior to his UFC debut, he enjoyed impressive championship runs in both ONE Championship and Bellator, defeating dangerous foes like Shinya Aoki, Zebaztian Kadestam, Nikolay Aleksakhin, Bakhtiyar Abbasov, Andrey Koreshkov, Douglas Lima, Jay Heiron and Lyman Good.

What do you think of Askren’s take on this Covington vs. Lawler fight?

This article first appeared on BJPENN.COM on 7/4/2019.