Did Ben Askren challenge Georges St-Pierre right after his retirement fight, and what does that mean?

Did Ben Askren really fight for the last time on Friday at “ONE Championship 65: Immortal Pursuit?”

For the time being, at least, the answer is yes.

Askren, ONE’s undefeated welterweight champion, made quick work of Japanese notable Shinya Aoki with a 57-second TKO finish in the pay-per-view headliner at Singapore Indoor Stadium. It was dubbed Askren’s retirement fight following an announcement in September. In the moments after his win, though, Askren didn’t completely shut the door on fighting again.

What could bring him back to the cage? “If I get the opportunity to prove I’m No.1,” he said.

But if this truly was it for Askren, his dominant performance puts an exclamation mark on a decorated MMA career, albeit a career that isn’t without question. Or, as he describes it, “enigmatic.”

“My career is enigmatic, for sure,” Askren, who also was Bellator’s champ from 2010 to 2013, told ESPN.com. “There are people who just don’t like me and say I suck, but there’s no way you can say decisively I wasn’t the best in the world. I’m in a weird place for most people. They don’t really know where to put me.

“I haven’t been given the chance to prove it, and MMA is a crazy sport, but I think I’ve been the best welterweight in the world since about 2012.”

When Askren says he wasn’t given the chance to prove his greatness, he’s talking about the obvious: He never fought in the UFC. And that still seems to bother him.

Askren met with the UFC as a free agent in 2013 but couldn’t land a deal with the industry leader. Had that happened, who knows? We might’ve seen him fight Georges St-Pierre, the current UFC middleweight champion who back then was the undisputed welterweight king – except, of course, to anyone who believes Askren (18-0) posed a serious threat St-Pierre (26-2 MMA, 20-2 UFC) with his wrestling pedigree as a two-time NCAA champion.

A lot of MMA fans feel robbed they never got to see that fight. It’s also the fight Askren wishes for most, otherwise how do you explain this tweet in the hours following his retirement fight?

@GeorgesStPierre how’s the spring weather in Montreal? I hear it’s a nice time to test your true Martial Arts skills

Did you hear that? That was the sound of Askren creaking the door open just a little bit more on a future comeback. Because if we never get that fight, or get to see him in the UFC, we’ll forever debate his place in MMA history. We will always wonder “what if.”

Sounds like Askren will, too.

For more on ONE Championship 65, visit the MMA Events section of the site.

The Blue Corner is MMAjunkie‘s official blog and is edited by Mike Bohn.