Ben Askren is up and back on social media after taking a thunderous flying knee to the face at UFC 239.
It was a bad night for Ben Askren at UFC 239 in Las Vegas.
Not only did he lose to Jorge Masvidal via violent flying knee knockout, but it happened in the first five seconds of their bout handing Masvidal the new record for fastest knockout in UFC history. It was a scary one too (watch it here). Askren went down hard and stiff from the shot, and didn’t get back up for a couple of minutes. He was rushed out of the arena for tests, but preliminary examinations were positive.
“He’s good,” UFC president Dana White revealed after the event. “All of his stuff came back negative. So, he’s OK. I’m sure he’s not OK, but you know…”
Askren wasn’t on hand for any of the post-fight press conference business, but he did take to social media later that night to share his thoughts on what happened. As usual, it involved his standard amount of understated dry humor.
Well that sucked
— Ben Askren (@Benaskren) July 7, 2019
It didn’t take for Jorge Masvidal to respond, mocking Askren’s message and sharing a shot showing “Gamebred” getting another punch in on the downed Askren.
#fakenews Ben is still sleeping pic.twitter.com/eLCDYG1VOv
— Jorge Masvidal UFC (@GamebredFighter) July 7, 2019
”Ben is still sleeping,” he wrote alongside the caption #fakenews.
The defeat to Masvidal is the first in Askren’s MMA career, putting him at 19-1-1. Masvidal improves to 34-13, and with two back to back murders of Darren Till and Ben Askren on the resume it’s hard to imagine he’ll have to do much more to get a welterweight title shot. Although you almost wonder if he’d happily accept a rematch against Askren if requested because he enjoyed punching the guy in the face so much.