Dana White Says Ben Askren Is ‘Smart Guy’, Confirms ‘Funky’ Is Getting Robbie Lawler Rematch

Surprising That UFC Head Honcho Dana White Praising Ben Askren

The former ONE Championship and Bellator MMA champion Ben Askren and UFC president Dana White’s relationship has been a contentious one. White has been a long critic of ‘Funky’ when he was in other promotions, and often time Ben fired right back for the better part of five years.

But now Askren is in the UFC rankings and is freshly coming off a controversial first-round submission win over a dangerous knockout artist Robbie Lawler at UFC 235 earlier this month received praise from Dana White.

“Askren has been fun,” White told Yahoo! Sports. “This guy’s smart, he’s funny, he likes to mix it up with everybody in a fun way, too. So it’s been good. I’m glad he’s here. Timing is everything in life and this was the perfect time for Ben Askren to be in the UFC.”

Sure thing Askren will probably be happy to hear those comments from company head honcho, but wouldn’t be too excited to learn about his next fight.

“I’m trying to make the [Robbie] Lawler rematch,” White said. “First of all, that fight was awesome, it was fun, it was controversial but it’s the fight to make right now. It’s terrible when that [controversy] happens. That’s the fight we want to make.”

Askren previously said that he isn’t interested in a rematch, but if needed he’s willing to do it; however, that’s not his priority.

“I pass,” Askren said at the UFC 235 post-fight press conference, shortly after his controversial win over Lawler. “I guess we’ll have that discussion. I would like to fight the winner of [Darren] Till vs. [Jorge] Masvidal, I think that makes a whole lot of sense where the division is concerned. I didn’t really want to fight Robbie in the first place. The first matchup they offered I said yes. I did that.”

‘Funky’ was planning to beat Darren Till to throw him out of title chase but last Weekend Jorge Masvidal went on to knock out British welterweight at UFC London. (see the highlights here).

Who wants to see Askren vs. Lawler 2 next?

Published on March 21, 2019 at 3:05 pm
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