{"id":268456,"date":"2018-01-22T17:19:31","date_gmt":"2018-01-23T01:19:31","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/?p=268456"},"modified":"2018-01-22T17:19:31","modified_gmt":"2018-01-23T01:19:31","slug":"video-ben-askren-tells-story-ufc-baited-bellator","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/mma-news\/ben-askren\/video-ben-askren-tells-story-ufc-baited-bellator\/","title":{"rendered":"VIDEO | Ben Askren Tells Story About How the UFC Baited Him Out of Bellator"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" width=\"560\" height=\"315\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/Ec4OKbrCl3I\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"autoplay; encrypted-media\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<blockquote><p><em>\u201cSo when I was 12-0, I had my last fight in Bellator against Andrey Koreshkov on July 30, maybe 31, of 2013 and I beat him up pretty good. I had a 12-month matching period, so what was expressed to me by the UFC brass was that you need to get out of your matching clause and we will make you an offer, but, we won\u2019t make you an offer until that happens.\u00a0<\/em><em>So I called Bjorn [Rebney] and I said \u2018Hey Bjorn, I\u2019m not going to re-sign, let me go. Bjorn had a terrible reputation, but I never had a problem with him, we never butted heads too bad. Anyway, I said Bjorn, I don\u2019t want to come back, but people say that they didn\u2019t want me back, but that\u2019s not true at all, but every day, I was like \u2018Bjorn let me go, Bjorn let me go,\u2019 and I love challenges. There\u2019s nothing more in the world that I love than a challenge. Go through my wrestling career, it\u2019s what I\u2019m all about, taking the next best single thing every time. So all this time, Dana and the UFC are saying \u2018We want Ben Askren. We want Ben Askren.\u2019 I\u2019m ranked number 7 in the world and 12-0 and so, I was going to the Asian store because I was going to make some Tom Kah soup and Bjorn called me and said \u2018You\u2019re released. You\u2019re released, you can go.\u2019 I said, \u2018I appreciate that.&#8217;<\/em><\/p>\n<p><em>So Friday morning I go, it\u2019s in November some time, mid-November.<\/em><em>\u00a0So they fax over the release and my manager faxes it over to UFC headquarters and in the afternoon, there\u2019s a media scrum where one of the questions was asked about me and Dana [White] said \u2018we aren\u2019t interested in Ben Askren,\u2019 and I was like wait, what\u2019s just happened there because for the last three months they were saying they were interested. Now I finally produce this full release from Bellator which was a miracle that I got, and now they aren\u2019t interested. So I was like, wow, I just got caught in the middle of this.<\/em><\/p>\n<p><em>I was like f\u2019 that and I bought a plane ticket to Vegas for Monday. I was like fuck that, I\u2019m not taking this shit, I\u2019m going to Vegas. So on <\/em>the Monday<em>, I fly out to Las Vegas to the UFC headquarters and I sit with Lorenzo [Fertitta] and Dana is on the speakerphone. They offered me a Zuffa contract, but it would be confidential and that I would have to fight one fight for World Series Of Fighting, which was like, that\u2019s bizarre. I think the old relationship between the old WSOF and UFC was pretty hazy, but people went the other way right. Like Andrei Arlovski got dropped into World Series, Anthony Johnson, boom, all these people.<\/em><\/p>\n<p><em>So they said one fight in WSOF and Zuffa will pay you, but you do one fight. So that was <\/em>f\u2019d<em> up, but OK. I don\u2019t think they thought I was going to go for it, but I said I\u2019d do it. So I leave, and about six hours later and I got a phone call saying that deal is no longer available, we aren\u2019t\u2019 going to make you an offer. So, wow.<\/em><\/p>\n<p><em>Here\u2019s my guess and I never got to sit face-to-face and say what was your problem with me. There are four things in my mind. Number one, he didn\u2019t really like me, stemming from the, I called him out on the steroid thing where he said it\u2019s impossible to test all UFC athletes. I said that\u2019s not true because USADA does it all over the world for all sorts of sports. You can do it, but it\u2019s just expensive so let\u2019s just call it what it is. They do it now and I was correct, but when Dana is wrong in an argument, and he\u2019s got this huge army that following him and I think his quote was, \u2018I\u2019d rather watch flys fuck than Ben Asken fight.&#8217; So the personal attacks started and that\u2019s number one.<\/em><\/p>\n<p><em>Number two, my fighting style isn\u2019t highly attractive. I also think that\u2019s a little bit of fake news because if you look at Georges St-Pierre, consistently, now [Conor] McGregor has trumped him, but if you look on a consistent basis Georges has been the biggest draw. He heavily relied upon takedowns and ground and pound.<\/em><\/p>\n<p><em>Three I think they wanted to take a key piece from Bellator. Four, I think they really believed I could be their champion and having a champion from Bellator transition right into the UFC and become champion, remember Bellator was going to Spike around now, and Bellator could\u2019ve used that to say they\u2019re the same.<\/em><\/p>\n<p><em>I\u2019ve never had the chance to sit down with Dana and ask why there was no offer. You know when like Anthony Pettis was the champ and I\u2019m helping coach him and I think Tyron was, I\u2019ve never had more than five words with Dana in passing right and so it would be really interesting for me to sit down and talk and say \u2018tell me for real.\u2019 I\u2019ve got my assumptions on what the deal was, but I don\u2019t really know.\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n<p><em>If I had to have number five, I think he got the idea that I\u2019d never <\/em>be<em> a \u2018yes man\u2019. I\u2019m not going to be, I\u2019m never going to be. He likes the \u2018yes man\u2019 champion. He\u2019s got some heat with Tyron, he\u2019s got some heat with Stipe as we saw on Saturday night. Dana really struggles with the personalities that won\u2019t cater to what he wants to happen.\u201d<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>One of MMA&#8217;s all-time greatest wrestlers and best fighters to never compete in the UFC is unquestionably the former Bellator and ONE Welterweight champion, &#8220;Funky&#8221; Ben Askren. He retired last year after winning three fights all by finish(two TKOs, one submission) and capping off his career with a flawless 18-0 record. Askren is still to this day one of Bellator&#8217;s most dominant champions as he defended the 170 lb title four consecutive times which included wins over future champions, Andrey Koreshkov and Douglas Lima.<\/p>\n<p>Many were hoping that Askren would indeed end up coming over to the UFC after his run with Bellator. Now Askren claims he is &#8220;semi-retired&#8221; and only wants to come back for a fight that will determine whether or not he can prove he&#8217;s the greatest Welterweight of all time. Askren has stated that that opponent would be none other than Georges St-Pierre himself.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><i>This article first appeared on\u00a0<\/i><a href=\"http:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/\"><span class=\"s1\"><i>BJPenn.com<\/i><\/span><\/a><i>\u00a0on 1\/22\/2018.<\/i><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>\u201cSo when I was 12-0, I had my last fight in Bellator against Andrey Koreshkov on July 30, maybe 31, of 2013 and I beat him up pretty good. I had a 12-month matching period, so what was expressed to me by the UFC brass was that you need to get out of your matching [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":54445,"featured_media":268458,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"video","meta":{"_mi_skip_tracking":false},"categories":[10184],"tags":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v19.7 (Yoast SEO v19.14) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>VIDEO | Ben Askren Tells Story About How the UFC Baited Him Out of Bellator | BJPenn.com<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/mma-news\/ben-askren\/video-ben-askren-tells-story-ufc-baited-bellator\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"VIDEO | Ben Askren Tells Story About How the UFC Baited Him Out of Bellator | BJPenn.com\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"\u201cSo when I was 12-0, I had my last fight in Bellator against Andrey Koreshkov on July 30, maybe 31, of 2013 and I beat him up pretty good. I had a 12-month matching period, so what was expressed to me by the UFC brass was that you need to get out of your matching [&hellip;]\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/mma-news\/ben-askren\/video-ben-askren-tells-story-ufc-baited-bellator\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"| BJPenn.com\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/bjpenn\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2018-01-23T01:19:31+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/01\/1000894_10151819245239879_269965601_n.0-Cropped.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"730\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"380\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Drake Riggs\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@https:\/\/twitter.com\/DrakeRiggs_\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@bjpenndotcom\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Drake Riggs\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"6 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/mma-news\/ben-askren\/video-ben-askren-tells-story-ufc-baited-bellator\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/mma-news\/ben-askren\/video-ben-askren-tells-story-ufc-baited-bellator\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Drake Riggs\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/#\/schema\/person\/cb9453802ca47ce42b30bfa92ade0bc7\"},\"headline\":\"VIDEO | Ben Askren Tells Story About How the UFC Baited Him Out of Bellator\",\"datePublished\":\"2018-01-23T01:19:31+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2018-01-23T01:19:31+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/mma-news\/ben-askren\/video-ben-askren-tells-story-ufc-baited-bellator\/\"},\"wordCount\":1162,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/#organization\"},\"articleSection\":[\"Ben Askren\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"copyrightYear\":\"2018\",\"copyrightHolder\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/#organization\"}},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/mma-news\/ben-askren\/video-ben-askren-tells-story-ufc-baited-bellator\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/mma-news\/ben-askren\/video-ben-askren-tells-story-ufc-baited-bellator\/\",\"name\":\"VIDEO | Ben Askren Tells Story About How the UFC Baited Him Out of Bellator | BJPenn.com\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2018-01-23T01:19:31+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2018-01-23T01:19:31+00:00\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/mma-news\/ben-askren\/video-ben-askren-tells-story-ufc-baited-bellator\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/mma-news\/ben-askren\/video-ben-askren-tells-story-ufc-baited-bellator\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/mma-news\/ben-askren\/video-ben-askren-tells-story-ufc-baited-bellator\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"MMA News\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/mma-news\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":3,\"name\":\"Ben Askren\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/mma-news\/ben-askren\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":4,\"name\":\"VIDEO | Ben Askren Tells Story About How the UFC Baited Him Out of Bellator\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/\",\"name\":\"| BJPenn.com\",\"description\":\"MMA &amp; 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