Morning Report: Ben Askren, Rory MacDonald get heated in exchange about potential Bellator matchup

Last fall, Ben Askren chose to retire from MMA after successfully defending his ONE FC welterweight title against Shinya Aoki. But for a man who is retired, Askren sure is trying to pick fights with just about everybody in the welterweight division.

When Askren retired, he said it was because he wanted to get out of the game before he started dropping off and that he would only return to the sport for a fight with Georges St-Pierre or whoever was considered to be the top welterweight in the world. But with neither of those forthcoming, that queue has opened up even further to include UFC lightweight championKhabib Nurmagomedov, and now it appears that Askren is willing to amend “best welterweight in the world” to “any welterweight champion.” On Wednesday, Askren engaged in a war of words on Twitter with Bellator welterweight title holder Rory MacDonald, saying that he would stop “The Red King” in the third round if they fought and imploring MacDonald to make it happen.

For his part, MacDonald seemed to be into the idea and so did Bellator MMA.

MacDonald suggesting to the promoter who holds his contract that he should make a fight with Askren, a free agent, was not enough for “Funky” though who quickly spun it so that MacDonald was attempting to duck him by blaming Bellator CEO Scott Coker. That opened up a back-and-forth between the two with Askren talking trash and MacDonald basically saying, “come sign the contract.”

MacDonald is the reigning Bellator welterweight champion, claiming the belt with a unanimous decision win over Douglas Lima at Bellator 192 in January. Askren is the former Bellator welterweight champion who was released from the organization after defending his title four times, the record for Bellator title defenses. A fight between the two would instantly be one of the biggest bouts in Bellator history.