Ben Askren Wants Darren Till For His UFC Debut Bout
Last week UFC officially traded former flyweight champion Demetrious Johnson to ONE Championship for undefeated Ben Askren. Ever since ‘Funky’ retired as an ONE Championship welterweight titleholder, he’s been calling out top fighters such as Georges St-Pierre and Nate Diaz. Since the news of trade deal arose, Askren pretty much called out everyone in the UFC.
UFC head honcho Dana White promised the wrestling standout would come right in and take on a top five marquee opponents for his UFC Octagon debut.
If it’s on Ben, he’d want to fight against current Lightweight champion Khabib ‘Eagle’ Nurmagomedov in a catchweight bout. However, that seems a bit unlikely.
Now Askren’s focus is on one man for his UFC debut bout as over the past few days he’s taken numerous shots at welterweight title contender Darren Till on Twitter suggesting he’s willing to fight him in London.
Recently speaking on his Rudis Wrestling podcast, ‘Funky’ made it clear he’s willing to settle for second-best contender Darren Till at 170-pound.
“Obviously, my number one and two would be GSP [Georges St-Pierre] and Khabib [Nurmagomedov] but I know there’s no way in hell I’m getting either one of those two first round,” Ben Askren said (transcript via MMA Fighting). “So I’m hoping to get matched up with this Englishman named Darren Till. He just fought for the world title, he’s ranked number two. I had a little Twitter fight with him. I think he’s significantly overrated. So I would like to fight him.”
“I’m willing to go to London to fight him, so we will see what happens with that,” Askren said.
Of course, Askren already stated he wouldn’t fight his friend and old college wrestling teammate, Tyron Woodley as ‘Funky’ can prove his greatness by facing other top fighters at 170-pounds.
The 34-year-old Ben Askren is widely considered the best wrestler at 170 pounds and amassed a pro record of 18-0 (1 NC). He retired from MMA back in November 2017, after his win over Shinya Aoki via first-round TKO.
Share your thought, do you think Englishman Darren Till is a suitable opponent for Askren’s UFC debut?
