Ben Askren will be fighting Jorge Masvidal on the main card of UFC 239 this Saturday night inside the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas, Nevada, but he has never been the “I’m only focusing on my opponent” type. Askren has never discriminated on whom received his retention since even before he was officially on the UFC roster. One notably name that has recently been re-inserted into the welterweight division is Nate Diaz. Diaz had mixed success in the lightweight division and as for his welterweight potential, Askren does not have a high assessment of Diaz based on past indicators:
“When it gets down to it, I know Nate Diaz said he’s not a 155 pounder anymore or whatever bulls—t he says but at the end of the day, Nate Diaz is 1-3 at 170 [pounds],” Askren told MMA Fighting. “Nate Diaz is a terrible 170-pounder and that’s all there is to it. Anthony versus Nate is going to be fun. I think Anthony is going to kick Nate’s ass and I don’t know that will really affect me that much.”
In actuality, Diaz is 2-3 at welterweight, with wins over Conor McGregor and Marcus Davis. But two wins that Ben Askren does not see in the Diaz’s future at 170 pounds is against Diaz’s next opponent, Anthony Pettis, or himself, and he finds Diaz delusional for even believing himself to be a threat at welterweight:
“For what it’s worth, he does a great job making people interested in him. It’s a funny thing because to me he comes off as fairly unintelligent and he says some crazy s—t,” Askren said. “Like where he said he’s the king of lightweights. It’s kind of funny. In a little demented way, he believes it even though there’s no way it’s close to actually being true. In the same way that a lot of people do, I find it entertaining and in another way it’s like holy s—t this guy is out of his damn mind.
“He is not a threat in the slightest bit to the welterweight division. I think we’re getting down to the point where he’s just delusional.”
What do you believe is Nate Diaz’s ceiling in the UFC welterweight division?
