Former Bellator and ONE FC welterweight champion Ben ‘Funky’ Askren’s highly anticipated UFC debut against Robbie Lawler has been rescheduled for UFC 235. The fight was initially supposed to take place on January 26, 2019, at Honda Center in Anaheim, California, United States but was cancelled earlier this week and has been moved to a later date.
Ben Askren was bought to UFC by a historic trade deal between ONE fighting Championship and Ultimate Fighting Championship. ONE got former UFC flyweight champion, Demetrious Johnson.
Although his fight is rescheduled, he tried to hustle his way into a headliner against Kamaru Usman or Colby Covington to save UFC 233 in the process.
“I volunteered to fight Colby, I volunteered to fight Usman, and they’re so scared,” Askren told reporters backstage at UFC on FOX 31, where he served as a guest fighter.
.@BenAskren says he offered to headline UFC 233 in Anaheim against Colby Covington and Kamaru Usman but both fighters declined the fight.
Watch full interview: https://t.co/oM0mFjvyU3 pic.twitter.com/Z4gcj7KGC9
— MMAFighting.com (@MMAFighting) December 16, 2018
“Usman is the ultimate hypocrite, and he’s so dumb, he can’t even put his sentences together,” Askren said. “He’s like, ‘I’m not a hypocrite. I said to earn your shot.’ Well, no, that’s exactly why I said you’re a hypocrite because that’s literally what Colby said to you. And then they pretend they don’t hear me.”
He blasted both Usman and Colby, said that despite both being in UFC for so long they have minuscule social media following and both are uninteresting people.
“Despite the fact that they’ve been in the UFC for four or five years, despite the fact that Colby won an interim and Usman’s pushing, their social media followings are still minuscule compared to mine,” Askren said. “Despite Colby running his stupid-ass (“Make America Great Again”) gimmick, despite Marty from Nebraska trying to act like he’s Kamaru.
“And so they’re just uninteresting people. So I volunteered to fight either of them to save the Anaheim card, and both of them said no. That’s the frickin’ truth.”
How do you think will fare in his UFC debut?
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