Ben Askren was severely underwhelmed by Artem Lobov vs. Paulie Malignaggi.
Former ONE FC and Bellator welterweight champion Ben Askren doesn’t think Paulie Malignaggi did the boxing community any favors in his bare knuckle debut against Artem Lobov at BKFC 6.
Malignaggi, a former two-division boxing world champion, lost to Lobov (13-15 MMA) in a dull, lackluster main event and subsequently announced his retirement at the BKFC 6 post-fight press conference on Saturday.
Askren wasn’t particularly impressed by ‘Magic Man’ and questioned boxing’s esteemed reputation as an elite combat sport.
“I get that Paulie retired, but he was a world champion,” Askren said during a recent Periscope session (h/t BJPenn.com). “Now Artem, I went back to his record to make sure he was as bad as I remember him being. The fact is he’s as bad as I remember him being. He stinks. And this wasn’t like he did MMA and had great standup but struggled on the ground, or always got taken down. Or had great hands but couldn’t deal with the kicks. It wasn’t anything like that. It was like he was a very average mixed martial artist. Average, that might even be getting a little too much.
“So how can a guy like that, who’s not even great at standup in mixed martial arts, go to beat a guy who was a world champion in boxing? And the answer to me seems that people who box must just not be that good at boxing.”
Lobov revealed at a post-fight media scrum that his next goal is to win the BKFC world title.
Askren, on the other hand, will take on Jorge Masvidal in a pivotal welterweight matchup at UFC 239. The pay-per-view takes place next month, July 6 at T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas.