Ben Askren jokes: Maybe White paid Rice $5,000 to make me look like an ass

ONE FC welterweight champion Ben Askren isn’t sure whether he wants to go back on AXS TV’s “Inside MMA” after host Kenny Rice cut him off during an interview this past week.

As Askren told MMAjunkie Radio, he’s spoken to AXS TV Fights CEO Andrew Simon, who apologized for the interaction on the Sept. 5 edition of the show, but he added, “Kenny still hasn’t said sh-t.

“He hasn’t issued an apology, and I’m not 100 percent sure I’m in favor of going back on. I told them I would think about it. I don’t know at this point.”

Askren (14-0), who won the ONE FC title this past month with a first-round TKO of Nobutatsu Suzuki, was in the midst of telling Rice and “Inside MMA” co-host Bas Rutten why he wasn’t clamoring to fight in the UFC when Rice told him to “close down the soapbox” and ended the segment on an awkward pause.

“I jokingly said to my wife after the interview, ‘Maybe Dana paid Kenny $5,000 to try to make me look like an ass,'” Askren said. “That was my intuition: Why is he acting like this? Something’s gotta be up. But I still have no idea. I’m still dumbfounded by the whole thing.”

Since then, Askren said his Twitter timeline has exploded with mentions from fans who were angry that he was silenced.

“I was kind of pissed about it at first, but I didn’t think it was a huge deal,” he said. “But I have never seen my Twitter feed, my mentions, so busy as they were. Honestly, it’s still going on. I looked at my Twitter a little while ago, and people are still bitching at Kenny. So yeah, it’s a big deal.

“Honestly, I think a lot of people were kind of happy that someone was finally speaking the truth, and all of a sudden I get cut off and I get censored – they’re really mad about that.”

Askren asked AXS TV for a chance to debate Rice about the economics of global MMA, but he said Simon was lukewarm about the idea. He said he was unaware of any bad blood with Rice prior to the interview.

“Kenny tried to make me look like I was stupid and didn’t know what I was talking about, but the fact is I would take Kenny to school on the economics of global mixed martial arts, so I said I would sit down and have a debate about that,” he said. “So the producer, Andrew Simon, said he wasn’t totally against that, but he also didn’t sound like he was excited about that, either, because if I make Kenny look bad, his show is going to be even worse than it already may be.”

The main point Askren said he wanted to stress during the segment was the idea his career doesn’t hinge on whether or not he fights in the UFC. Despite Rice’s assertion that all fighters eventually want to end up within the ranks of the industry-leader, he said he already feels enough fulfillment to call it a career, though he’ll continue to defend his ONE FC title in the near future.

“Personally, I think I’m the best welterweight in the world,” Askren said. “I totally see other people’s arguments that I haven’t proved it to them, so they don’t want to believe it. I get it; that’s fine with me.

“My two arguments to Kenny were that I’ve accomplished more than any little kid (could imagine). Two NCAA titles, two (Dan Hodge Trophies), the Olympics, Bellator champion, ONE FC champion, arguably the best welterweight in the world. Could I imagine I would accomplish that as a 12-year-old? No, not really. So financially, I’m secure. (My credentials), I’m secure. Would I like to beat (UFC welterweight champ) Johny Hendricks? One-hundred percent. But I don’t need to.”

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