Ben Askren Defends BMF Belt, Jorge Masvidal Responds
Ben Askren will be facing Demian Maia at UFC Singapore, while the last man he fought – Jorge Masvidal, will fight next month. Masivdal knocked out Askren in just 5 seconds (some may argue it was 2 seconds), but that resulted in Jorge’s stock sky-rocketing overnight. Dana White has revealed that he will be creating a new title, for the winner of Jorge Masvidal – Nate Diaz, dubbed the “BMF” belt.
While there have been many who do not see a value in the title, Ben Askren for one thinks it’s a good idea.
“Honestly, I think it works from a marketing angle”, he told MMA Fighting. “I don’t love either one of the guys, but I think it definitely works from a marketing angle. They pitched it correctly, and I think it makes sense.”
Ben had initially retired after maintaining a perfect record and conquering Bellator MMA and ONE Championship. However, he came out of retirement to test himself against the UFC fighters. Askren believes that nothing was proven in those five seconds, and wants a second crack at “Gamebred”.
“What I said explicitly was I wanted to come back to see if I was the best in the world”, Askren said. “In that five seconds, we didn’t find that out. We found out Jorge has a fantastic knee and that I’m not invincible, but we didn’t find much else out.
“I think I can bounce back from that pretty quickly and hope that it happens.”
Ben Askren then voiced his interest in a rematch with Jorge Masvidal down the line.
“That would be really nice”, Askren said about a rematch. “Again, we’ll see where the division goes and where I’ll be, but I hope so.”
Masvidal took to Twitter, and stated that he would rematch Askren, provided he picks up a few wins.
“Get some wins and we can do it”, Masvidal responded.
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