Jorge Masvidal reacts to Jake Paul’s KO win over Ben Askren at Triller Fight Club.
Jorge Masvidal wasn’t the least bit surprised at the outcome of Ben Askren’s boxing debut against Jake Paul, claiming that he picked the ‘The Problem Child’ to win from the outset.
Masvidal, who is renowned for his flying knee KO of Askren at UFC 239, helped Paul prepare for the bout and said the result was a foregone conclusion.
“All I gotta say is, I told you so,” Masvidal said of Paul’s first-round knockout of Askren last Saturday (h/t Low Kick MMA). “I told everybody — and the MMA world was mad at me that, you know, he (Ben Askren) was representing MMA. Never. Never not once ever was he representing MMA — how dare anybody say that guy is representing MMA, when every interview he’s ever done about strikers is, ‘I don’t need to strike, I can just wrestle these guys to the ground.“
“And he’s being saying that in interviews for ten years plus,” he added. “And now we’re supposed to get behind this guy who doesn’t respect mixed martial arts. Because it is mixed martial arts, it’s not just wrestling, or just boxing, you know. So obviously, when he went in there — I called it. I was the first guy to call it.“
Askren, who is reported to have earned $500,000 show money, seems to be taking the loss in stride. The former ONE and Bellator welterweight champ earned the highest payday of his career and participated in one of the biggest PPV events in the year.
Masvidal will take on Usman for the welterweight title at UFC 261, in a replay of their first championship matchup at UFC 251. UFC 261 takes place this Saturday, April 24 at VyStar Veterans Memorial Arena in Jacksonville, Florida.