Ben Askren recently reflected on his infamous KO loss at the hands of Jorge Masvidal. He admitted the final punches Masvidal administered weren’t “super necessary” but were at least “kinda funny”.
The “BMF” winner, Masvidal is preparing to face off against the welterweight champion, Kamaru Usman, at UFC 251 this weekend on UFC Fight Island. The anticipated matchup comes after a long list of career triumphs for “Gamebred”.
In the main event of UFC 239, he faced off against the former Bellator and ONE Championship welterweight titleholder, Ben Askren. “Funky” immediately went for the takedown and Masvidal counteracted with a flying knee. The devastating move left Askren unconscious on the canvas. Masvidal followed up with some brutal ground and pound before the referee intervened and called a stop to the action.
The blockbuster welterweight title fight scheduled for UFC 251 has made Askren reflect on his loss against Masvidal. He credits Gamebred’s meteoric rise to their 2019 matchup.
“I put the spotlight on him,” Askren told ESPN. “His Twitter followers, Instagram followers, it went 5X. I put the spotlight on him, I played the foil to him. I let him shine [but] unfortunately right, I thought I was going to crush him.”
Masvidal received some backlash for following up with ground and pound when Askren was clearly out cold. However, the BMF champ said because the referee hadn’t yet called an end to the fight, it was “super necessary” to keep attacking.
Even though Askren doesn’t agree, he acknowledged the humor in his opponent’s response.
“He says some of these things like the ‘three-piece and the soda’ that are like maybe he’s not intentionally funny but again it’s really authentic, and people love that. You know when he said ‘f*cking super necessary.’ I feel like he was kind of a douche for punching me when I was already unconscious, that was just unnecessary but he said it was ‘super necessary’.
“You know what, it’s pretty funny. You know, I was the dude that got punched and you know what I’ll say, that was Jorge being real and that was kind of funny. Even though it was me, and I thought he was a douchebag for punching me after I was unconscious, it was kinda funny. So yes, there is a certain authenticity to Jorge that people really enjoy.”
Following his statement loss to Masvidal, Askren went on to fight Demian Maia, suffering a submission loss in the third round. His consecutive losses combined with his ongoing hip issues resulted in the 35-year old’s official retirement from the sport last year.
What do you think of these comments from Ben Askren?