Dana White: With 'scumbag' Bjorn Rebney, UFC not banking on easy Ben Askren deal

INDIANAPOLIS – While the UFC may be interested in signing Bellator champion Ben Askren, UFC President Dana White doesn’t believe it’ll be a smooth process due to one person.

Askren (12-0 MMA, 9-0 BMMA), an Olympic wrestler and undefeated MMA welterweight who recently fought the last bout on his Bellator contract, has expressed interest in joining the UFC. After Bellator Chairman and CEO Bjorn Rebney said he’d waive the exclusive 90-day negotiating period and didn’t expect to make a new offer to the fighter, Askren told MMAjunkie.com (www.mmajunkie.com) that Rebney would be “doing me a favor” if he let him go to the UFC.

White, though, doesn’t believe it’ll be a smooth process due to the former boxing promoter.

“Bjorn Rebney’s a scumbag,” White said Wednesday night. “The guy says, ‘Yeah, we’re going to let him go. Let’s just part ways.’ You ain’t f—ing parting ways with him. He’s got a matching right and all that bulls—. This guy is a f—ing typical boxing piece of s—. Everybody knows the guy is a scumbag.

“We’ll see what happens with Ben. First they say they’re going to let him go. They’re not going to let him go. They’ll probably end up suing him too and make him sit out and lose a bunch of money and f— him in a deal. Bad guys. They’re bad guys.”

White’s opinion was at least partially formed due to the recent situation with Eddie Alvarez. After the lightweight fighter’s Bellator contract was up, the UFC made a play to sign Alvarez. However, it resulted in a nearly 10-month legal fight between Bellator and Alvarez – which got personal at times – that wasn’t resolved until earlier this month. Terms of the new contract weren’t disclosed, but Alvarez will remain with Bellator and is scheduled to rematch lightweight champion Michael Chandler at the organization’s pay-per-view debut on Nov. 2.

As for Askren, White believes Rebney is simply trying to drive down his price, as he did with Alvarez.

“He had the opportunity to go out there and find out what he’s worth, yet he didn’t get what he’s worth,” White said.

That means it could be anything but a smooth process to get Askren on the UFC’s 170-pound roster.

“He’s f—ing him,” White said. “He’s doing the same thing he did to Eddie. He’s not letting him really go out and get a fair – do you really think honestly, everyone here, do you think that if Eddie Alvarez did a deal with us, that Eddie Alvarez wouldn’t have made a lot of money? (Former Bellator middleweight champ) Hector Lombard did. Hector Lombard got paid.

“When you go out and find out what you’re worth, that’s what that thing in the contract is. But these guy are signing these contracts over there that just f— them.”

For more on the UFC’s and Bellator’s schedules, stay tuned to the MMA Rumors section of the site.

(Pictured: Dana White)