Undefeated former ONE Championship welterweight champion Ben “Funky” Askren is now officially part of the UFC’s 170-pound division after the historic trade for former longtime UFC flyweight champ Demetrious Johnson. ONE made a formal announcement about adding “Mighty Mouse” to their roster and they’ve already had a media conference call featuring Johnson. That happened over the weekend. But UFC? They’ve yet to make any sort of formal announcement, Askren hasn’t been added to the roster of fighters on their website, and we can’t even find a simple tweet from the company welcoming Askren to the promotion. What the heck guys?
Askren too is wondering what’s going on:
Hey @ufc are you gonna make an announcement? You are like that guy with a GF who’s embarrassed to tell his buddies even when everyone knows! Ha ha ha you know you love me.
— Ben Askren (@Benaskren) October 30, 2018
To be fair, TMZ did stalk corner UFC President Dana White on the street a couple days ago and got him to at least acknowledge there was a trade. White was asked who Askren’s first opponent would be. “We’re still working on it,” White said. “Obviously, he’s gonna come into the welterweight division, 170 pounds, he’s undefeated, he’s their champion, so we’re excited about it. He’s definitely gonna fight somebody in the Top 5.”
So why the snub from UFC?
Fight fans might recall Dana has never been a big fan of Askren. In fact he has him blocked on Twitter (don’t feel bad Ben, we’re in that club too). Then there were comments like this regarding Askren from the UFC President back in April 2012.
@thefightweek @benaskren when ambien can’t sleep it takes Ben Askren. The most boring fighter in MMA history. I would rather watch flys fuck
— Dana White (@danawhite) April 16, 2012
Guess the Prez got tired of watching flies mate.
Welcome to the UFC Ben!!