Ben Askren flew over the pond to England to check out UFC Fight Night London, which saw Jorge Masvidal defeat Darren Till by second round knockout in the main event.
When it comes to his next fight, it would be Masvidal whom Askren would love to fight next.
“I would love to fight [Masvidal], but like I said, you heard that post-fight speech, I think he’s trying to find reasons not to fight me,” Askren said after the event (via MMA Fighting). “He’s talking about fight for the belt — prior to this fight, he had two losses in a row. You don’t go from losing two [in a row] to winning one and then all of a sudden you have a belt when there’s all these guys in front of you. It just doesn’t work that way.”
Askren made his UFC debut at UFC 235, defeating former UFC Welterweight Champion Robbie Lawler by first round submission.
Both UFC President Dana White and Lawler want to see a second fight with Askren put together, but Askren doesn’t see the upside of a potential second bout.
“The first guy I asked [the UFC] for was Darren Till actually, and then they said how about Robbie Lawler,” Askren said. “I said, ‘Listen, I’m here to fight everybody, so if you want me to fight Robbie Lawler, I’ll fight.’ It didn’t take more than a phone call, right? I’ll fight Robbie Lawler, no big deal. But I didn’t want to. And so now I did it once and they want me to go do again. I just, I don’t see how that moves me farther up, and that’s where I want to go, I want to move farther up.”
Masvidal could wind up fighting Leon Edwards next, as the two had a post-show brawl backstage after the event.
