{"id":289121,"date":"2018-10-24T10:29:10","date_gmt":"2018-10-24T17:29:10","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/?p=289121"},"modified":"2018-10-24T10:46:15","modified_gmt":"2018-10-24T17:46:15","slug":"report-one-championship-ufc-close-to-finalizing-historic-ben-askren-demetrious-johnson-trade","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/mma-news\/ufc\/report-one-championship-ufc-close-to-finalizing-historic-ben-askren-demetrious-johnson-trade\/","title":{"rendered":"Report | ONE Championship, UFC close to finalizing historic Ben Askren &#8211; Demetrious Johnson trade"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>ONE Championship and the UFC are close to finalizing a history-making fighter trade, per <a href=\"http:\/\/www.espn.com\/mma\/story\/_\/id\/25072200\/ufc-one-championship-close-finalizing-first-major-mma-trade\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">ESPN<\/a>. This potential trade would see the UFC send former flyweight champion and pound-for-pound great Demetrious Johnson to the Singapore-based promotion in exchange for former ONE and Bellator welterweight champion Ben Askren.<\/p>\n<p>While this trade is reportedly on the table, it is not official yet.<\/p>\n<p>This potential arrangement was <a href=\"https:\/\/mmajunkie.com\/radio\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">first mentioned on MMAjunkie Radio<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>Per ESPN&#8217;s report, both Ben Askren and Demetrious Johnson have multiple obligations left on their current contracts, which implies significant cooperation between the two mammoth MMA promotions.<\/p>\n<p>Demetrious Johnson (27-3-1) last fought in August, when his longstanding reign as UFC flyweight champion and the world&#8217;s top pound-for-pound fighter came to a close after a split decision loss to Henry Cejudo.<\/p>\n<p>The former UFC champion holds victories over names like Joseph Benavidez, Kyoji Horiguchi, Ian McCall, John Dodson, Ray Borg, John Moraga, Wilson Reis, and the aforementioned Cejudo.\u00a0It is not known at this time what Johnson&#8217;s potential departure could mean for the long-struggling UFC flyweight division. That being said, it&#8217;s possible his departure could be the harbinger for the division&#8217;s demise.<\/p>\n<p>Ben Askren (18-0) last fought in November of 2017, when he scored a TKO win over Shinya Aoki in a superfight that was supposed to serve as the last bout of his career. With this win, he improved to 6-0 in ONE Championship, building on a legendary run as Bellator&#8217;s welterweight champion.<\/p>\n<p>Askren has long been interested in moving to the UFC, but has simultaneously struggled to negotiate with the promotion and its president Dana White. That said, he recently claimed there is <a href=\"http:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/mma-news\/ben-askren\/ben-askren-says-theres-a-98-chance-that-hes-coming-to-the-ufc\/\">a 98% chance<\/a> he&#8217;ll fight in the promotion&#8217;s Octagon soon. It seems as though he was not exaggerating.<\/p>\n<p>Stay tuned for further updates on this wild story as they emerge.<\/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 10\/24\/2018.<\/i><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>ONE Championship and the UFC are close to finalizing a history-making fighter trade, per ESPN. This potential trade would see the UFC send former flyweight champion and pound-for-pound great Demetrious Johnson to the Singapore-based promotion in exchange for former ONE and Bellator welterweight champion Ben Askren. While this trade is reportedly on the table, it [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":54430,"featured_media":289123,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mi_skip_tracking":false},"categories":[10184,10171,19776,39610],"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>Report | ONE Championship, UFC close to finalizing historic Ben Askren - Demetrious Johnson trade | BJPenn.com<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"ONE Championship and the UFC are reportedly nearing a historic trade, as theyr&#039;e poised to swap Demetrious Johnson for Ben Askren.\" \/>\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\/ufc\/report-one-championship-ufc-close-to-finalizing-historic-ben-askren-demetrious-johnson-trade\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Report | ONE Championship, UFC close to finalizing historic Ben Askren - Demetrious Johnson trade | BJPenn.com\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"ONE Championship and the UFC are reportedly nearing a historic trade, as theyr&#039;e poised to swap Demetrious Johnson for Ben Askren.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/mma-news\/ufc\/report-one-championship-ufc-close-to-finalizing-historic-ben-askren-demetrious-johnson-trade\/\" \/>\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=\"2018-10-24T17:29:10+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2018-10-24T17:46:15+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/wp-content\/uploads\/Demetrious-Johnson-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\/ufc\/report-one-championship-ufc-close-to-finalizing-historic-ben-askren-demetrious-johnson-trade\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/mma-news\/ufc\/report-one-championship-ufc-close-to-finalizing-historic-ben-askren-demetrious-johnson-trade\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Tom Taylor\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/#\/schema\/person\/e1a3f1e5a045aeaf5b59aa1549a06a87\"},\"headline\":\"Report | ONE Championship, UFC close to finalizing historic Ben Askren &#8211; Demetrious Johnson trade\",\"datePublished\":\"2018-10-24T17:29:10+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2018-10-24T17:46:15+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/mma-news\/ufc\/report-one-championship-ufc-close-to-finalizing-historic-ben-askren-demetrious-johnson-trade\/\"},\"wordCount\":323,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/#organization\"},\"articleSection\":[\"Ben Askren\",\"Demetrious Johnson\",\"ONE Championship\",\"UFC\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"copyrightYear\":\"2018\",\"copyrightHolder\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/#organization\"}},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/mma-news\/ufc\/report-one-championship-ufc-close-to-finalizing-historic-ben-askren-demetrious-johnson-trade\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/mma-news\/ufc\/report-one-championship-ufc-close-to-finalizing-historic-ben-askren-demetrious-johnson-trade\/\",\"name\":\"Report | ONE Championship, UFC close to finalizing historic Ben Askren - Demetrious Johnson trade | BJPenn.com\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2018-10-24T17:29:10+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2018-10-24T17:46:15+00:00\",\"description\":\"ONE Championship and the UFC are reportedly nearing a historic trade, as theyr'e poised to swap Demetrious Johnson for Ben Askren.\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/mma-news\/ufc\/report-one-championship-ufc-close-to-finalizing-historic-ben-askren-demetrious-johnson-trade\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/mma-news\/ufc\/report-one-championship-ufc-close-to-finalizing-historic-ben-askren-demetrious-johnson-trade\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/mma-news\/ufc\/report-one-championship-ufc-close-to-finalizing-historic-ben-askren-demetrious-johnson-trade\/#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\":\"UFC\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/mma-news\/ufc\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":4,\"name\":\"Report | ONE Championship, UFC close to finalizing historic Ben Askren &#8211; Demetrious Johnson trade\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/\",\"name\":\"| BJPenn.com\",\"description\":\"MMA &amp; UFC News, Results &amp; Fight Videos\",\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/#organization\"},\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Organization\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/#organization\",\"name\":\"| BJPenn.com\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/\",\"logo\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/\",\"url\":\"http:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/01\/bj_penn_logo_amp.png\",\"contentUrl\":\"http:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/01\/bj_penn_logo_amp.png\",\"width\":600,\"height\":148,\"caption\":\"| BJPenn.com\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/\"},\"sameAs\":[\"https:\/\/instagram.com\/bjpenn\",\"https:\/\/www.linkedin.com\/in\/bjpenn\",\"https:\/\/www.pinterest.com\/bjpenndotcom\/\",\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/user\/0fficialbjpenn\",\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/bjpenn\",\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/bjpenndotcom\"]},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/#\/schema\/person\/e1a3f1e5a045aeaf5b59aa1549a06a87\",\"name\":\"Tom Taylor\",\"description\":\"Tom Taylor is a globetrotting writer currently based in Ottawa, Canada. He is a staff writer for BJPenn.com, and also covers mixed martial arts for Fightland and Vice Sports. Follow him on Twitter @TomTayMMA.\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/author\/tom-taylor\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO Premium plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Report | ONE Championship, UFC close to finalizing historic Ben Askren - Demetrious Johnson trade | BJPenn.com","description":"ONE Championship and the UFC are reportedly nearing a historic trade, as theyr'e poised to swap Demetrious Johnson for Ben Askren.","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/mma-news\/ufc\/report-one-championship-ufc-close-to-finalizing-historic-ben-askren-demetrious-johnson-trade\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Report | ONE Championship, UFC close to finalizing historic Ben Askren - Demetrious Johnson trade | BJPenn.com","og_description":"ONE Championship and the UFC are reportedly nearing a historic trade, as theyr'e poised to swap Demetrious Johnson for Ben Askren.","og_url":"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/mma-news\/ufc\/report-one-championship-ufc-close-to-finalizing-historic-ben-askren-demetrious-johnson-trade\/","og_site_name":"| BJPenn.com","article_publisher":"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/bjpenn","article_published_time":"2018-10-24T17:29:10+00:00","article_modified_time":"2018-10-24T17:46:15+00:00","og_image":[{"width":696,"height":399,"url":"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/wp-content\/uploads\/Demetrious-Johnson-Ben-Askren.jpg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"Tom Taylor","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_creator":"@bjpenndotcom","twitter_site":"@bjpenndotcom","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Tom Taylor","Est. reading time":"2 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Article","@id":"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/mma-news\/ufc\/report-one-championship-ufc-close-to-finalizing-historic-ben-askren-demetrious-johnson-trade\/#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/mma-news\/ufc\/report-one-championship-ufc-close-to-finalizing-historic-ben-askren-demetrious-johnson-trade\/"},"author":{"name":"Tom Taylor","@id":"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/#\/schema\/person\/e1a3f1e5a045aeaf5b59aa1549a06a87"},"headline":"Report | ONE Championship, UFC close to finalizing historic Ben Askren &#8211; Demetrious Johnson trade","datePublished":"2018-10-24T17:29:10+00:00","dateModified":"2018-10-24T17:46:15+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/mma-news\/ufc\/report-one-championship-ufc-close-to-finalizing-historic-ben-askren-demetrious-johnson-trade\/"},"wordCount":323,"publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/#organization"},"articleSection":["Ben Askren","Demetrious Johnson","ONE Championship","UFC"],"inLanguage":"en-US","copyrightYear":"2018","copyrightHolder":{"@id":"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/#organization"}},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/mma-news\/ufc\/report-one-championship-ufc-close-to-finalizing-historic-ben-askren-demetrious-johnson-trade\/","url":"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/mma-news\/ufc\/report-one-championship-ufc-close-to-finalizing-historic-ben-askren-demetrious-johnson-trade\/","name":"Report | ONE Championship, UFC close to finalizing historic Ben Askren - Demetrious Johnson trade | BJPenn.com","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/#website"},"datePublished":"2018-10-24T17:29:10+00:00","dateModified":"2018-10-24T17:46:15+00:00","description":"ONE Championship and the UFC are reportedly nearing a historic trade, as theyr'e poised to swap Demetrious Johnson for Ben Askren.","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/mma-news\/ufc\/report-one-championship-ufc-close-to-finalizing-historic-ben-askren-demetrious-johnson-trade\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/mma-news\/ufc\/report-one-championship-ufc-close-to-finalizing-historic-ben-askren-demetrious-johnson-trade\/"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/mma-news\/ufc\/report-one-championship-ufc-close-to-finalizing-historic-ben-askren-demetrious-johnson-trade\/#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":"UFC","item":"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/mma-news\/ufc\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":4,"name":"Report | ONE Championship, UFC close to finalizing historic Ben Askren &#8211; Demetrious Johnson trade"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/#website","url":"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/","name":"| BJPenn.com","description":"MMA &amp; UFC News, Results &amp; Fight Videos","publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/#organization"},"potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/#organization","name":"| BJPenn.com","url":"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/","url":"http:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/01\/bj_penn_logo_amp.png","contentUrl":"http:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/01\/bj_penn_logo_amp.png","width":600,"height":148,"caption":"| BJPenn.com"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/"},"sameAs":["https:\/\/instagram.com\/bjpenn","https:\/\/www.linkedin.com\/in\/bjpenn","https:\/\/www.pinterest.com\/bjpenndotcom\/","https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/user\/0fficialbjpenn","https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/bjpenn","https:\/\/twitter.com\/bjpenndotcom"]},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/#\/schema\/person\/e1a3f1e5a045aeaf5b59aa1549a06a87","name":"Tom Taylor","description":"Tom Taylor is a globetrotting writer currently based in Ottawa, Canada. He is a staff writer for BJPenn.com, and also covers mixed martial arts for Fightland and Vice Sports. Follow him on Twitter @TomTayMMA.","url":"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/author\/tom-taylor\/"}]}},"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/289121"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/54430"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=289121"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/289121\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/289123"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=289121"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=289121"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=289121"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}