Ben Askren is a mixed martial arts phenom. Now retired, the welterweight was never defeated in his MMA career.
That being said, Askren never made his way to the world’s most famous mixd martial arts promotion. The fighter has had a heated relationship with UFC President Dana White and now Askren has come forward to offer an explanation behind the lengthy feud.
Askren would go on to become the undefeated welterweight champion of ONE Championship, but never competed inside the octagon. Speaking to MMA journalist Ariel Helwani on the latest edition of The MMA Hour, Askren revealed that his past conversation concerning anti-doping watch dogs USADA may have played a role.
“It’s been so obvious what the UFC did to me. Dana’s been hiding behind all these lame ass excuses of, ‘He’s not experienced enough. He’s not good enough. He’s too boring. bla bla bla bla.'”
“They were all lies. Every single one of them was a lie. Because, he didn’t want to tell the real story, because he’s a very petty man.”
“He has $350 Million dollars and a gigantic ego. And he still has no confidence in self.”
“He can’t put the fact that I told him they can do USADA testing, and he said, ‘no’. And then they did it a year later. He can’t put that little detail behind him. And because of that little detail where I made him look bad, he has held a grudge ever since then.”
“And he has withheld the fight that fans want to see. Fans want to see how I would have done in the UFC. And he hasn’t been able to put that together over a tiny little petty grudge over someone calling him a name.”
“And it wasn’t even a bad name, I called him a liar. And he was lying, so it was in fact true. And he’s been holding that against me since 2012. I mean, for god sakes man, you’ve got $350 million dollars, don’t you have anything better to do than hold a grudge?”
“Pathetic…”
