Askren offers career advice to Edwards, describes London dust-up with Masvidal

Bloodyelbow.com

Ben Askren is in demand. The new UFC welterweight already has a big, albeit controversial over a former champion and there are a few guys that want a shot at him. It looks like the next person across from him in the Octagon will be Jorge Masvidal, which Leon Edwards is not a fan of. After all, Edwards wanted some revenge on Masvidal for his ‘three-piece and a soda’ in front of the media in London.

As a guest on The MMA Show on ESPN today, Askren took it upon himself to give Edwards some backhanded career advice (transcribed by MMA Mania):

“Do I feel bad that he got punched in the face? Yeah. I don’t like sucker-punching. I guess I do feel bad for that part. Do I feel bad because he’s not getting the fight? Not at all.”

…

“This is what Leon Edwards doesn’t understand; he’s asking, ‘Why is Ben Askren in London?’ It’s like, Leon, do you see all the numbers I am getting on pretty much every social media? Do you see why Ariel has me on every single week? It’s because people, for some reason, and I don’t know why, people now find me at least semi-interesting and they want to see me get in the Octagon. So you need to do something similar to yourself and then you will be able to get the bigger fights.”

He also described a minor incident that Askren and Masvidal had in a London hotel. Masvidal and Ibrahim Kawa stated that Askren came up to him and said that he “looked good”, which Masvidal didn’t like. Askren says that didn’t happen:

“I’m standing upstairs, then he walks up the stairs. So I say, ‘Hey, Jorge is here.’ And then he gets pissed. It doesn’t take anything to piss these guys off, it’s kind of funny.

“It doesn’t not take much to make these guys mad. It’s kind of hilarious. So he starts cussing at me, I look at him, smile and he walks by to do his interview and that was it. Obviously I am not going to fight this guy in the hotel, I fight in the Octagon for a lot of money,” added Ben.

“But there was definitely no running away or me wishing him good luck or anything like that. It was a simple exchange and I don’t know why he felt the need to lie about it.”

Askren and Masvidal are scheduled to face off at UFC 239 in July.