{"id":292412,"date":"2018-11-23T06:43:29","date_gmt":"2018-11-23T14:43:29","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/?p=292412"},"modified":"2018-11-27T16:12:00","modified_gmt":"2018-11-28T00:12:00","slug":"ben-askren-explains-why-mma-fans-appreciate-him","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/mma-news\/ufc\/ben-askren-explains-why-mma-fans-appreciate-him\/","title":{"rendered":"Ben Askren explains why MMA fans appreciate him"},"content":{"rendered":"

Former ONE Championship and Bellator titleholder Ben Askren is finally in the UFC. And while his debut \u2014 a UFC 233 battle with Robbie Lawler \u2014 is still some distance away, he’s already feeling the love from the fans.<\/p>\n

Speaking on the UFC Unfiltered<\/a> podcast recently, Ben Askren explained why he thinks UFC fans have come to appreciate him.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m more of a purist competitor and I enjoy the fighting aspect of it, but people enjoy my personality and they enjoy that I tell the truth. I speak plainly, I don\u2019t beat around the bush and I\u2019m just genuine,” he said (transcript via MMANytt<\/a>).<\/p>\n

Askren elaborated, explaining that he will always give his honest assessment of his opponents \u2014 for better or for worse.<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t have anything bad to say about Robbie Lawler so I\u2019m not going to fraudulently say something about him just because I\u2019m going to fight him,\u201d he explained. \u201cI\u2019m not. If I don\u2019t like Colby [Covington] I\u2019m going to say it. If I think Nick Diaz is a dumb-dumb then I\u2019m going to say it. I\u2019m not going to create an unnecessary beef because I\u2019m fighting someone. I think people appreciate all those things about me.\u201d<\/p>\n

This is not the first time Ben Askren has mentioned Colby Covington. He’s had plenty to say about the UFC interim welterweight champ over recent weeks.<\/p>\n

He explained why he has such a difficult time stomaching Covington \u2014 and why he feels some fans are having the same difficulty.<\/p>\n

\u201cOne of the reasons why Colby isn\u2019t catching on, and Colby has been in the UFC for four-years, he had a fake title shot, and he still had a very small amount of the following that I do,\u201d Askren said. \u201cWhether it\u2019s Instagram or Twitter or whatever. Part of the reason that\u2019s happened is because it\u2019s so contrived.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen Colby says stuff you don\u2019t think wow that\u2019s unique and that\u2019s genuine. The fact that he has to bring Trump into everything is so that everyone gets mad because everyone hates Trump right. He has to do that to draw interest, it\u2019s just an obvious sign that people aren\u2019t that into you.\u201d<\/p>\n

Do you appreciate the up-front and honest personality of Ben Askren?<\/p>\n

This article first appeared on\u00a0<\/i>BJPENN.COM<\/i><\/span><\/a>\u00a0on 11\/23\/2018.<\/i><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Former ONE Championship and Bellator titleholder Ben Askren is finally in the UFC. And while his debut \u2014 a UFC 233 battle with Robbie Lawler \u2014 is still some distance away, he’s already feeling the love from the fans. Speaking on the UFC Unfiltered podcast recently, Ben Askren explained why he thinks UFC fans have […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":54430,"featured_media":289870,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mi_skip_tracking":false},"categories":[10184,39610],"tags":[],"yoast_head":"\nBen Askren explains why MMA fans appreciate him | 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\/ufc\/ben-askren-explains-why-mma-fans-appreciate-him\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Ben Askren explains why MMA fans appreciate him | BJPenn.com\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Former ONE Championship and Bellator titleholder Ben Askren is finally in the UFC. And while his debut \u2014 a UFC 233 battle with Robbie Lawler \u2014 is still some distance away, he’s already feeling the love from the fans. 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