Video: With Askren's Bellator deal up, Rebney hopes negotiation comes naturally

The last fight on Ben Askren‘s Bellator MMA deal is in the books, and the promotion’s welterweight champion delivered yet again with perhaps his most dominant performance to date.

Now CEO Bjorn Rebney finds himself in a position he’s been in before – hoping to keep one of his champions rather than lose him to the competition.

Rebney on Wednesday confirmed to MMAjunkie.com Radio (www.mmajunkie.com/radio) that Askren’s win over Andrey Koreshkov at this past week’s Bellator 97 card was the last fight on his current deal.

Rebney also said he’s unsure of what steps the promotion will take in negotiations with Askren (12-0 MMA, 9-0 BMMA), who has a standard exclusive negotiating period with Bellator built into his deal before he can seek offers from other promotions.

In the past, as was the case with former lightweight champ Eddie Alvarez, Rebney waived the exclusive period and let Alvarez test the market early. He got an offer from the UFC, Bellator attempted to match it and now the entire case is tied up in the legal system with Alvarez’s side saying Bellator’s counter-offer was not a true match.

“Ben’s last fight for us was his fight against Koreshkov,” Rebney said. “At this point, we’re having communications with Ben and we’ll see how it goes. It’ll probably just happen naturally. We’ll see. Ben and I have always had a pretty open line of communication. I like Ben.”

Rebney liking his champ might not be a surprise. But Askren has proven to be one of his most polarizing fighters, at least inside the cage. “Funky,” a two-time NCAA champion wrestler who trains at Duke Roufus’ academy in Milwaukee, has plenty of detractors because of his wrestling-based game. That style led six straight decision wins under the Bellator banner.

But in his past two title defenses against Koreshkov and Karl Amoussou, Askren turned that dominating wrestling attack into a pair of TKO victories. Prior to that, he beat highly regarded Douglas Lima over a five-round stifling decision.

“Everybody’s got a different opinion about Ben Askren,” Rebney said. “Most wrestling fans have a huge pro opinion, and some fans have a huge con opinion. But what you can’t deny is that he dominates fights. He’s old-school in that he’s completely and totally one-dimensional. But the reality of mixed martial arts is, if you don’t like the dimension, then stop it. Lima’s a monster. Koreshkov’s a stud. And he just destroyed them.

“We all like the evolution of mixed martial arts. We all like watching mixed martial arts – not category-specific martial arts. But you’ve got to give props to Ben and what he does because he takes one dimension and just uses it to dominate.”

But when it comes to contract negotiations with Askren, time will have to tell for Rebney and Bellator. The promotion’s founder lost middleweight champion Hector Lombard to the UFC in 2012. Then there was the threat of losing Alvarez, which still may happen depending on what the legal system says.

But he’s also been able to retain champions like lightweight champ Michael Chandler, who recently re-upped with Bellator on a long-term deal. And featherweight titleholder Pat Curran recently told MMAjunkie.com (www.mmajunkie.com) he was in the middle of trying to rework his deal with the promotion.

“These things are always malleable,” Rebney said. “Sometimes you try to go through the full process of working through a negotiation to see what you can make or not make happen, or different situations warrant different connectivity. There’s no black-and-white answer to that. With some guys it takes a long period of time. With some guys, it’s short. With some guys, you just go, ‘Hey, dude, why don’t you go find out if they want you and what they’d be willing to pay.’”

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