Ben Askren to ‘reevaluate’ what is next for him
Ben Askren went to London, England for the purpose of getting his next fight booked. The entire time he said he would prefer to fight Darren Till next, but he needed to get past Jorge Masvidal. Ultimately, that was not the case as Masvidal knocked out Till in the second round.
However, it wasn’t all doom and gloom for Askren. Rather, he said he would Masvidal, too. But then, backstage, Masvidal, and Edwards got into a fight which now Edwards is calling for that fight. It makes a lot of sense for that fight to be booked. But it now leaves Askren searching for his next opponent.
“I would love to fight [Masvidal], but like I said, you heard that post-fight speech, I think he’s trying to find reasons not to fight me,” Askren said Saturday on the UFC London post-fight show. “He’s talking about fight for the belt — prior to this fight, he had two losses in a row. You don’t go from losing two [in a row] to winning one and then all of a sudden you have a belt when there’s all these guys in front of you. It just doesn’t work that way.”
The hope is no matter who is next, the fight gets booked soon. He once again showed the world why he is one of if not the best welterweights in the world. There are options for his next fight in the Robbie Lawler rematch or a fight against the likes of Santiago Ponzinibbio. Really, Askren just wants to get back in there.
“I genuinely don’t know,” Askren said. “They haven’t brought the fight to me yet. They haven’t asked me to do it. I said I’d reevaluate after tonight, so I guess tomorrow maybe we’ll be talking to them, and we’ll figure out what’s going to happen.”