Jorge Masvidal made history when he knocked out Ben Askren with a flying knee in five seconds (watch it here) on the main card of last weekend’s UFC 239.
‘Gamebred’ and his American Top Team coach Mike Brown had been plotting the move all along. Masvidal is now planning to move on to a big fight in the immediate future. As for Askren, well, he doesn’t really remember what happened in the fateful five-second fight. He did own up to the loss and admitted he deserved every bit of the substantial vitriol being flung his way.
Masvidal vs. Askren II A No Go
Many are still calling it a ‘lucky’ strike, however. Because of that, the topic of a potential Masvidal vs. Askren rematch came up when ‘Gamebred’ appeared on MMA Junkie Radio this week. The veteran quickly shot down that notion, noting that Askren was ‘no longer with us.’ With that said, he believed ‘Funky’ would have to be crazy to sign on for a rematch:
“You said like like fighting, like with punches and kicks? You think that dude would fight me again? We can’t speak of things that are no longer present here. That’s almost disrespectful because if someone’s dead I don’t want to talk about them. We shouldn’t talk about Ben like that, man, because that dude is no longer with us.
“I can’t. That dude would have to be a maniac to sign the contract again. ‘You know what, let me give it another go at this thing with this guy.’ It’s not too keen on me, bro. There’s no way. That’ll never happen.”
Couldn’t Get Past The ‘Chin Checker’
Masvidal clearly believes that Askren’s wrestling-heavy style has been exposed by the best in the Octagon. It’s hard to argue with him based on what we’ve seen so far. But he acknowledged that he would have liked to beat Askren up for quite some time longer. In that sense, he was disappointed Askren couldn’t make it past the opening seconds of the fight:
“I broke the record. I’m happy,” Masvidal said. “I would have loved to beat him up for 14 minutes so I truly felt, the way my defensive skills line up as far as stand up and wrestling goes put together, I would have made it a nightmare for him to ever get to my leg. Just to start the fight with the athleticism that I have and the way that my defensive maneuvers are in standing, the way I can move my feet, I’d be a nightmare for him to get to my leg, so I wanted to show that to him.
“It sucks he couldn’t get passed Level 1, the chin checkers.”
Is there any real reason to schedule a Masvidal vs. Askren rematch?
