Ben Askren on six-figure ONE FC fights, ‘bald-headed fat man,’ UFC future, Baroni, more

Former Bellator MMA champion, undefeated MMA fighter and recent ONE FC signee Ben Askren admits he’s fighting mostly for a paycheck. Whether he’s OK with that is still an unanswered question.

He said there are still moments where he feels the need to prove he is the best welterweight in the world, but those are less frequent than a few years ago. And now that a contract offer with the UFC is not in the cards, he’s still adjusting to the idea that he will continue his career, despite a strong desire to coach others rather than compete himself.

“To be perfectly honest, I just don’t have the same desire to fight,” Askren told MMAjunkie. “Back in the day, I was just so passionate about competing and being the best. It’s really been a few years since I’ve felt like that. But still, I’m really good at what I do, so it’s hard to give it up.”

Askren contemplated retiring after Bellator released him so he could entertain an offer from the UFC, only to find out the industry leader passed on signing him. He was lured back to fighting by a lucrative offer from the Asia-based ONE FC promotion.

Late this past month, just days after his Bellator release, Askren (12-0) flew to the UFC’s Las Vegas headquarters for a meeting. He was at Mandalay Bay Hotel & Casino when he heard there would be no deal, which, he said, contradicted earlier statements from UFC executives.

“They essentially told my manager, ‘We’re going to get something done,’ and six hours later, when I’m not in the meeting and not in the UFC office, I get a call saying, ‘It’s not going to happen,’” he said.

“It is their business, and they can run their business however they want to run their business. But it would have been nice to hear from their mouth what the real issue was. I have a pretty good idea of what it is, but they still didn’t spit it out.”

UFC President Dana White, whom Askren said was on vacation at the time of his meeting and attended via conference call, told reporters he wasn’t interested in signing the former Bellator champ when he became a free agent.

In subsequent interviews, the two traded shots about each other’s character.

“In all honesty, I think if you put a 15-man tournament together, I think I could be the best fighter in the world right now,” Askren said. “And now, I’m not going to get a chance to prove that because one bald-headed fat man chooses not to let me in.”

Almost immediately after the UFC said no, Askren received contract offers from World Series of Fighting and ONE FC. After weighing his options, he signed with the latter, which he said could net him just shy of $1 million over two years.

Additionally, he signed a sponsorship deal with Singapore’s Evolve gym, where he’ll train just prior to fights.

If invested properly, his earnings could last him long enough to where he could focus on running a pair of wrestling schools he operates with his brother, as well as teaching wrestling at his longtime gym, Roufusport, in Milwaukee.

So right now, a lack of competitive fire isn’t much of a deterrent to Askren when he thinks about the long-term benefits of fighting for money.

“I’m going to make more than six figures in my next fight,” Askren said. “Any way you cut it, that’s a lot of damn money. And I like to train every day, so even if I retired, I would still train in some form.”

But he also said it wasn’t necessarily an easy decision to soldier on after his wish to fight for the UFC belt went unfulfilled. In the end, his competitive ego may have played more of a factor than he originally thought.

“I don’t want to leave a stain on my legacy,” Askren said. “I’ve always competed to the best of my abilities. At the end of the day, I don’t want to leave fighting with a handful of subpar performances where I’m not giving my all.”

Askren expects to make his debut for ONE FC in March or April against an unknown opponent. He said he’ll soon embark on a public-relations tour in Asia. He’s already been called out by Phil Baroni (15-17), a UFC vet attempting to rebuild his career overseas.

“It’s gross how desperate he is to get a fight,” Askren said. “He probably doesn’t know what else he’s going to do with his life, so he’s trying to talk himself (into) a fight.”

Askren remains bitter about the way in which the UFC turned him down. But he can’t say whether he would turn down the promotion if they came calling after he finished his contract with ONE FC – only that it’s unlikely to happen, given the past and his timetable in the sport.

“If in two years, I’m the ONE FC champ, and I come kick the UFC champ’s ass, how does that look? So it’s not as if I’m going to get an immediate title shot if and when I moved back to the UFC,” Askren said. “So now it’s three, four years down the road, and I’m past my athletic prime, because I’m not going to use the [testosterone-replacement therapy] and whatever people are using.

“It’s a big question. I’ve got to wrestle with a lot of things in my own mind.”

For more on ONE FC’s schedule, stay tuned to the MMA Rumors section of the site.