{"id":306598,"date":"2019-03-21T09:59:44","date_gmt":"2019-03-21T16:59:44","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/?p=306598"},"modified":"2019-03-21T09:59:45","modified_gmt":"2019-03-21T16:59:45","slug":"dana-white-praises-ben-askren-confirms-next-fight-will-be-most-likely-be-against-robbie-lawler","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/mma-news\/ufc\/dana-white-praises-ben-askren-confirms-next-fight-will-be-most-likely-be-against-robbie-lawler\/","title":{"rendered":"Dana White praises Ben Askren, confirms next fight will be most likely be against Robbie Lawler"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

UFC President Dana White and former ONE and Bellator champ Ben Askren haven’t always had the best relationship. In fact, they’ve seem to outright loathe each other at various points in the past.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Now that Ben Askren is firmly embedded as a member of the UFC welterweight top-15, however, Dana White seems to be changing his tune.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The UFC boss offered Askren some rare praise in an interview with Yahoo! Sports.<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cAskren has been fun,\u201d he said. \u201cThis guy\u2019s smart, he\u2019s funny, he likes to mix it up with everybody in a fun way, too. So it\u2019s been good. I\u2019m glad he\u2019s here. Timing is everything in life and this was the perfect time for Ben Askren to be in the UFC.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

While Askren will probably be happy to hear these comments from Dana White, he might not like the next matchup White has in mind for him. The UFC boss says he’s working on a rematch between Askren and Robbie Lawler, given that the pair’s UFC 235 bout ended in a controversial first-round submission win for Askren. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI\u2019m trying to make the [Robbie] Lawler rematch,\u201d White said. \u201cFirst of all, that fight was awesome, it was fun, it was controversial but it\u2019s the fight to make right now. It\u2019s terrible when that [controversy] happens. That\u2019s the fight we want to make.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ben Askren has stated that he’s willing to accept a rematch with Robbie Lawler if need be, though he’s also made it clear that it’s far from his first choice. <\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI pass,\u201d Askren said at the\u00a0UFC 235 post-fight press conference, shortly after his controversial win over Lawler. \u201cI guess we\u2019ll have that discussion. I would like to fight the winner of [Darren] Till vs. [Jorge] Masvidal, I think that makes a whole lot of sense where the division is concerned. I didn\u2019t really want to fight Robbie in the first place. The first matchup they offered I said yes. I did that.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This article first appeared on\u00a0<\/em>BJPENN.COM<\/em><\/a>\u00a0on 3\/21\/2019.\u00a0<\/em>
<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

UFC President Dana White and former ONE and Bellator champ Ben Askren haven’t always had the best relationship. In fact, they’ve seem to outright loathe each other at various points in the past. Now that Ben Askren is firmly embedded as a member of the UFC welterweight top-15, however, Dana White seems to be changing […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":54430,"featured_media":304604,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mi_skip_tracking":false},"categories":[10184,10112,10152,39610],"tags":[],"yoast_head":"\nDana White praises Ben Askren, confirms next fight will be most likely be against Robbie Lawler | BJPenn.com<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"UFC President Dana White offers some rare praise to former ONE and Bellator welterweight champion "Funky" 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\/dana-white-praises-ben-askren-confirms-next-fight-will-be-most-likely-be-against-robbie-lawler\/\" \/>\n<meta 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