{"id":275489,"date":"2018-04-30T06:56:17","date_gmt":"2018-04-30T13:56:17","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/?p=275489"},"modified":"2018-04-30T07:06:12","modified_gmt":"2018-04-30T14:06:12","slug":"scott-coker-isnt-interested-in-signing-ben-askren-for-one-fight","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/mma-news\/scott-coker\/scott-coker-isnt-interested-in-signing-ben-askren-for-one-fight\/","title":{"rendered":"Scott Coker isn&#8217;t interested in signing Ben Askren for one fight"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Over the last few weeks, undefeated former Bellator and ONE welterweight titleholder Ben Askren has expressed interest in ending his retirement for a fight with <a href=\"http:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/mma-news\/ben-askren\/ben-askren-and-rory-macdonald-share-interest-in-potential-fight\/\">Rory MacDonald in Bellator<\/a>, or <a href=\"http:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/fighter\/georges-st-pierre\/\">Georges St-Pierre<\/a> in the UFC.<\/p>\n<p>Chatri Sityodtong, the Chairman and CEO of ONE Championship (where Askren is still technically under contract) seemed willing to work with Bellator to allow Askren to fight Rory MacDonald.<\/p>\n<p>https:\/\/twitter.com\/YODCHATRI\/status\/987558102751834113<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;I am open to doing a World Champion vs World Champion fight between Ben Askren and Rory MacDonald, &#8220;Sityodtong said on Twitter. &#8220;I have big respect and deep admiration for both athletes. If the fans want it, let&#8217;s make it happen!&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Unfortunately, Bellator President Scott Coker doesn&#8217;t seem to share Sityodtong&#8217;s interest in making this fight a reality. In his eyes, Askren is only looking for one more big fight. The fighters that interest him, meanwhile, are the ones who are interested in regularly competing.<\/p>\n<p id=\"KCAJj4\">\u201cBen, I don\u2019t really think wants to fight,\u201d Coker told the media shortly after Bellator 198 last Saturday night in Chicago, Illinois (h\/t\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/mmajunkie.com\/2018\/04\/bellator-president-scott-coker-signing-ben-askren-free-agent-mma\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">MMA Junkie<\/a>). \u201cI think he wants to fight one more fight and be done with it. That\u2019s what I understand.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Coker than reiterated that he&#8217;s focused on keeping his current welterweight\u00a0 roster busy, not on signing fighters who just want one bout.<\/p>\n<p id=\"aaICMD\">\u201cWe\u2019ve got a big fight for [Michael Page] coming up in London,\u201d Coker continued. \u201cWe\u2019ve got a big fight for [Jon] Fitch and [Paul] Daley in San Jose on May 12. We\u2019re going to keep these guys busy. I want fighters that are going to be here fighting.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Ben Askren wore gold in Bellator from 2010 to 2013. He then left the organization, and promptly captured the belt in ONE Championship, where he made three title defenses.<\/p>\n<p>Do you think Scott Coker should make a Rory MacDonald vs. Ben Askren fight in the Bellator cage?<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><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 4\/30\/2018.<\/i><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Over the last few weeks, undefeated former Bellator and ONE welterweight titleholder Ben Askren has expressed interest in ending his retirement for a fight with Rory MacDonald in Bellator, or Georges St-Pierre in the UFC. Chatri Sityodtong, the Chairman and CEO of ONE Championship (where Askren is still technically under contract) seemed willing to work [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":54430,"featured_media":275491,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mi_skip_tracking":false},"categories":[10184,10146,10122],"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>Scott Coker isn&#039;t interested in signing Ben Askren for one fight | 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\/scott-coker\/scott-coker-isnt-interested-in-signing-ben-askren-for-one-fight\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Scott Coker isn&#039;t interested in signing Ben Askren for one fight | BJPenn.com\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Over the last few weeks, undefeated former Bellator and ONE welterweight titleholder Ben Askren has expressed interest in ending his retirement for a fight with Rory MacDonald in Bellator, or Georges St-Pierre in the UFC. Chatri Sityodtong, the Chairman and CEO of ONE Championship (where Askren is still technically under contract) seemed willing to work [&hellip;]\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/mma-news\/scott-coker\/scott-coker-isnt-interested-in-signing-ben-askren-for-one-fight\/\" \/>\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=\"2018-04-30T13:56:17+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2018-04-30T14:06:12+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/wp-content\/uploads\/Ben-Askren.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"696\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"399\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Tom Taylor\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@bjpenndotcom\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@bjpenndotcom\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Tom Taylor\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 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\/scott-coker\/scott-coker-isnt-interested-in-signing-ben-askren-for-one-fight\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/mma-news\/scott-coker\/scott-coker-isnt-interested-in-signing-ben-askren-for-one-fight\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Tom Taylor\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/#\/schema\/person\/e1a3f1e5a045aeaf5b59aa1549a06a87\"},\"headline\":\"Scott Coker isn&#8217;t interested in signing Ben Askren for one fight\",\"datePublished\":\"2018-04-30T13:56:17+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2018-04-30T14:06:12+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/mma-news\/scott-coker\/scott-coker-isnt-interested-in-signing-ben-askren-for-one-fight\/\"},\"wordCount\":335,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/#organization\"},\"articleSection\":[\"Ben Askren\",\"Rory MacDonald\",\"Scott Coker\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"copyrightYear\":\"2018\",\"copyrightHolder\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/#organization\"}},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/mma-news\/scott-coker\/scott-coker-isnt-interested-in-signing-ben-askren-for-one-fight\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/mma-news\/scott-coker\/scott-coker-isnt-interested-in-signing-ben-askren-for-one-fight\/\",\"name\":\"Scott Coker isn't interested in signing Ben Askren for one fight | BJPenn.com\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2018-04-30T13:56:17+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2018-04-30T14:06:12+00:00\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/mma-news\/scott-coker\/scott-coker-isnt-interested-in-signing-ben-askren-for-one-fight\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/mma-news\/scott-coker\/scott-coker-isnt-interested-in-signing-ben-askren-for-one-fight\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/mma-news\/scott-coker\/scott-coker-isnt-interested-in-signing-ben-askren-for-one-fight\/#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\":\"Scott Coker\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/mma-news\/scott-coker\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":4,\"name\":\"Scott Coker isn&#8217;t interested in signing Ben Askren for one fight\"}]},{\"@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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