Ben Askren on money, respect, drugs and head stomps

Former Olympic wrestler, Bellator welterweight and current ONE FC welterweight champion Ben Askren was a bit peeved when he was abruptly cut-off by an interviewer during a recent interview on the AXS TV cable network. After all, the always vocal Askren was simply discussing the topics the show hosts asked him to talk about.

"You guys can't just cut me off," Askren protested on the air.

Inside MMA Interviewer and co-host Kenny Rice replied by saying, "yeah we can. We just did."

The fighter was downright angry when he went home and watched the taped TV segment and realized that the Rice had not even apparently cut him off because of time concerns, but instead went on his own small rant for some time afterwards.

"I was definitely shocked," Askren tells Cagewriter.

"It was supposed to be an independent news media show. It's not as if I was on UFC Tonight, criticizing the UFC's business model and tactics. At first, I was a little annoyed when he cut me off but then when I watched the broadcast, Kenny just babbled on about how great the UFC was for awhile. I initially thought they were concerned with time."

Whatever the reasons for Rice cutting Askren off, he certainly did so in rude and unprofessional fashion, talking down to the fighter, cracking wise and then debating Askren's points to himself after the fighter's mic was cut and he was unable to answer back. The co-host's mistake compelled at least one AXS TV executive to publicly apologize to Askren on Twitter.

Though Askren says that the executive and show producer "kind of" apologized to him, he says he's received no such apology from the show co-host who cut him off, Rice, and that if he were to ever appear again on the program, "they'd have to give me a platform to actually talk and not just cut me off."

Askren has long been critical of the UFC, notable its president Dana White, for everything from not having extensive drug testing to not treating fighters with enough respect. Askren believes that criticism is a big reason why, after he left Bellator, he was not signed by the UFC and instead went to Asia to fight for ONE FC.

"I've never been a person to hold words," he says.

"If I see something, I'll say it. One of the first things I ever criticized the UFC for was their drug testing. At the time, Dana bashed me and said what I was suggesting was impossible. Now, we've come full-circle and they are basically doing what I said they should have been doing with regards to enhanced drug testing.

"I criticized the UFC prior to negotiating with them, while we were in talks and after. Obviously, I'm not pro-UFC, but I would have fought there. I could be bitter but I'm not. I ended up in a great space. Never in my wildest imagination would I have guessed I'd be fighting in Asia for ONE FC but I'm happy as heck."

It seemed strange to Askren and the fight world at the time that the UFC would not pick up a former Olympian and undefeated MMA welterweight with a similar fight-finishing percentage as UFC superstar and long-time 170 pound champ Georges St. Pierre. This writer wondered out loud if Askren, who says he is paid handsomely by ONE FC, perhaps simply asked for more money than the UFC wanted to pay him, during talks with the promotion's brass.

Askren says that they never got to money talks before White nixed any possibility of Askren getting signed to the UFC at that point. "We never really got that far to talk about money," he says.

"We had a decent meeting in Vegas but obviously, in my opinion, and I have a lot of info that I haven't put out to the public... I think the number one reason the UFC didn’t sign me at the time is because they didn't want a Bellator champ coming over and winning a UFC championship, and I've been told they thought that was a distinct possibility."

If the concern was that an unknown fighter from another promotion could come in and win a UFC title right away, and that that would somehow demean the world's top MMA promotion, one would imagine that concern could be alleviated by having Askren fight a couple fights in order to earn a title shot, and not grant him one in his first UFC outing. Askren maintains that he never demanded an immediate UFC title shot, however.

"I didn’t demand an immediate title shot or anything," he says.

"I was just ready to fight. You have to understand, I was with Bellator when they had 200 people in an arena and drew just 100 thousand viewers on television. I was with them during those days. Now, I think they did seven thousand people in Connecticut and they get 800 thousand viewers and hit a million fairly regularly. Plus, they are backed by Viacom, one of the larger media companies in the world. So, the UFC definitely sees them as a threat."

Despite Bellator growing while he was with them, Askren says he planned to leave the organization before he was released. "I was on my way out," he says.

"[Former CEO] Bjorn [Rebney] was never as bad to me as other people claim he was. He was never that bad to me. The conversations I had with him were basically,  'my tests are over there, not here. Let me find a new test." And, at the end of the day, they let me go to go after those tests."

Askren didn't get the "test" of fighting against UFC welterweights as he had hoped, but he did sign with top Asian MMA promotion ONE FC, and recently became their welterweight champion. Though Askren was surprised as anyone else to have ended up with the Singapore-based promotion, he says he's happy there so far, after two fights.

"From a fighting perspective, [the ONE FC] rule-set is far superior to the unified rules the UFC uses. The biggest difference is that kicks and knees are allowed on the ground, to the head, which opens up lots of different possibilities. It really changes a lot of situations where, in North American, you would be in a stalemate, but in ONE FC you can finish the fight," he begins.

"The other big difference is that the fights are scored in their entirety, not round-by-round. Nothing infuriates fans more than a wrestler taking a couple close rounds, 10-9, but then getting his ass kicked in the third round but still getting a decision win. In ONE FC, you have to fight the full three rounds. And, the number one scoring criteria there is damage, not control."

Askren the athlete may like the rules of ONE FC, but "Funky" Ben the man with bills to pay says he likes the pay check he gets as an emerging star in the Asian MMA scene. "From a promotion perspective, they take care of you and treat you with respect," he says.

"I'm getting paid very well."

Askren says he's come out unscathed from his last fight and hopes to fight again this year, either in November or December. The wrestler begins his training camps in Milwaukee at RoufuSport and ends them in Singapore at the Evolve MMA gym, which has direct ties to the ONE FC promotion.

The camp-split is working out well for the fighter, he claims. "It's great. It's been fantastic," Askren says.

"RoufuSport is one of the best camps on the planet. And Evolve MMA has some of the best teachers in the world...I'm healthy and really looking forward to fighting again soon."

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