Coker picked Jake Paul to KO Askren, and now Ben’s ‘mad’

Ben Askren is beefing with the Bellator executive.

UFC veteran Ben Askren is campaigning for a boxing match with Jake Paul, revealing a poster and supposed March 28 date against the YouTuber. Interestingly enough, this potential bout had Askren publicly trading barbs with someone else, Bellator President Scott Coker.

Coker initially gave a prediction on the match up, picking the YouTuber to finish the UFC veteran and former Bellator champion.

“I already know who’s gonna win that one,” Coker told MMA Junkie. “Ben’s a wrestler. Let’s put it that way, right? So I think he gets knocked out in a boxing fight. But in an MMA fight, it’s a different story.”

Askren clearly didn’t appreciate the Bellator head’s comments, issuing a response on social media. He dissed Coker’s work, and spoke about Viacom trying to sell Bellator.

Coker responded to the “very serious accusation” about Bellator’s possible sale, and saying that Askren is simply “mad” at his prediction.

“He’s making a very serious accusation that’s untrue,” Coker told MMA Fighting on Wednesday. “I’m meeting with my lawyers later today to discuss our options.

“This just came up a couple days ago, because there were groups inquiring about (whether) Viacom (would) want to sell a piece of Bellator, and they said no,” Coker said. “There’s probably been five, six offers for Bellator since I’ve been there – in the last few years – and Viacom turned them all down.

“(Askren’s) just mad because I said Logan would knock him out in a boxing match, which is true.”

Just for the record, Coker initially said Jake, not Logan, would KO Askren. I wonder if this was just an innocent mistake mixing up the brothers’ names, or if he actually thinks both of them would put Askren’s lights out.

Askren, 36, is a world class wrestler that retired from MMA in 2019, after being stopped in two of his three UFC fights.