James Brown was always in the constant pursuit of urging people to ‘get down’ whenever possible. Years later, it’s clear that he was making a direct reference to Ben Askren’s MMA game.
There’s a reason why Askren has been ranked in our official Frate Trane list for years. There are few things that exist in this universe that can stop Ben Askren from putting you on your back. You, not me. It would be silly to get in the cage with this guy. I’m quite fine with my box of Devil’s Food Cookies and my DVD box set of The Golden Girls. Fighting Askren is synonymous to fighting gravity — you’re just not going to win and you will ultimately come crashing to the ground (and stay there).
Over the years we’ve seen a boisterous Askren take to Twitter, Facebook, and even MMA message boards to claim that he’s the greatest welterweight fighter, and thus far he’s 100% backed up his claims. Now that Ben Askren’s contract is finished with Bellator, Bjorn Rebney says he will release him from the promotion, but only if he gets an instant title shot against GSP (assuming Georges beats Hendricks, that is). Check out this excerpt from this Josh Gross article in ESPN.com.
“He just called me and said straight up, ‘I think you’re the best welterweight in the world,'” Askren told ESPN.com on Tuesday. “I thought, OK, where’s he going with this?”Rebney wondered aloud: “How about I let you go free if you fight GSP?”
Bjorn Rebney also took the time to turn up his beef meter a few levels in order to communicate with Dana White.
“Here’s my message to the UFC,” Rebney said. “Stop saying that the best in the world fight in the UFC. And stop saying that our matching rights are stopping you from talking to one of the greatest welterweights in the game. And that’s it. It’s simple. It’s straightforward. There’s no back talk. No back track. No game to it. It’s as simple as that.“If you want to say the best fighters in the world fight in your organization and one becomes available and you have the unfettered right to talk to him, pick up the phone and call him. And if you claim our matching rights are so prohibitive — the exact same matching rights that you have in your agreement — then give him a title fight out of the box, which is not unreasonable given that he’s ranked in the top six in the world, and I’ll just walk away from our matching rights. So I’m making it as simple as I can possibly make it for them to live up to what they claim. Go for it. Or don’t go for and I’ll re-sign him. And if you want to fight the best you can come here to Bellator, train your wrestling like a wild dog, and try to beat Ben Askren.”
Strong words from a bald guy to another bald guy regarding a dude that has enough hair to clothe an entire third world country.
