White: Ben Askren just not my kind of guy

Former Bellator welterweight Champion and 2008 freestyle wrestling Olympian Ben Askren has signed a six-fight, two-year deal with the Singapore based ONE FC. This followed months of posturing by Bellator, that many fans feel soured the UFC on Askren.

I think Lorenzo doesn’t let his ego get involved in it, he’s a little more mature and he doesn’t have the quarrel with Bellator as much as Dana,” said a bitter Askren. “I think Lorenzo was pro me, and wanted to get me in the organization… Dana is so ‘immature’ that he’s letting a bitter rivalry between he and Bellator/Bjorn get in the way of the main point of the business, which is to put the best people in the world in the Octagon to let them fight it out, it’s kind of crazy.”

There have also been suggestions that Askren signed with ONE FC in order to spite UFC president Dana White, who had suggested following a meeting between the pair that the competition at World Series of Fighting would be good fit. WSoF’s welterweights include Josh Burkman, champion Steve Carl, Jon Fitch, and perhaps most intriguingly, Rousimar Palhares.

In an interview with Ariel Helwani, White detailed his reasoning.

“Obviously I heard that he had a lot of negative things to say, especially about me,” said White, who appeared most amused than angry. “First of all, we didn’t ask for that meeting. He asked for that meeting. There was never any, ‘Hey let’s meet with Ben Askren.’ Ben Askren wanted that meeting. This is a business and a sport where, you saw the whole Rampage thing, how that went down. We bring in the best guys in the world, they compete, they win world titles they do whatever. But at the end of the day, this is still a business. And you want to be in business with guys that want to be in business with you, guys that are happy. I can just tell from the comments that were made that Ben Aksren isn’t one of those kind of guys.”

“I’m hearing just stupidness – the reason he went to ONE FC is because he heard that I wanted him to go to World Series of Fighting. I don’t give a f— where he goes. He can go fight in f—ing ABC on fu—ng Pluto, for all I care. I wanted him to go to World Series of Fighting? I don’t give s— where the guy goes, personally. But, there’s competition at World Series of Fighting. There was no competition at Bellator. I didn’t even know ONE FC was still in business. And I’m not taking a shot at these guys, I have nothing against them, I didn’t even know they still existed.

“World Series of fighting…. they have competition there. There’s actually competition where the guy, it sounds to me like this guy wants to walk in somewhere, make a s—load of money, and, I don’t know, he’s just not my kind of guy.”