Jorge Masvidal is still ragging on Ben Askren in the lead up to Askren’s boxing match against Jake Paul.
Just a few weeks out from the boxing match between Jake Paul and Ben Askren, the two fighters have been throwing verbal jabs at each other. Lately, however, it seems the most drama is coming between former foes Askren and Jorge Masvidal. Masvidal has been helping Paul get ready for this match, to which Askren has taken offense. Now, Masvidal is calling out Askren in return. Many are making this fight out to be YouTuber vs. MMA star, but Masvidal would not go as far as to classify Askren that way.
“He’s not a foe, and he’s also not a representation of our sport, of my beautiful sport. He’s not,” Masvidal told ESPN. “He’s actually quite dissed the sport. When you used to ask him in interviews, ‘Why don’t you ever strike?’ ‘Oh, because I could just wrestle these guys to death.’ I love wrestling. I’m a huge wrestling fan. But you have to show respect. You have to know that this is MMA. You have to strike. You have to do jiu-jitsu. You have to do wrestling. All these things.”
Askren was a very high skilled wrestler in his day. He was a two-time NCAA Division I national champion, and a member of the 2008 Olympic wrestling team. Following his wrestling career, he made the move to MMA. He had a long and very successful career in Bellator and ONE Championship, winning a belt in both. However, Masvidal seems to think that Askren’s style was too one-dimensional to be representing MMA in the outside world.
“So now this guy is supposed to represent what? Like, our community or something in boxing? Hell no,” Masvidal went on. “Who the hell gave this guy an approval? The only reason why he’s doing that is because I embarrassed him so much and made him so famous for getting knocked out, somebody else wants to do the same thing to that guy. But I just want to make this clear (to everybody): He is not a representation of MMA in any way.”
Askren and Masvidal may never meet in the Octagon again but could they be setting up a boxing match in the future?
Would you like to see Ben Askren and Jorge Masvidal box each other?
