All signs point to Ben Askren heading to ONE FC.
After the former Bellator welterweight champion was not offered a contract by the UFC, he turned down an offer from World Series of Fighting to verbally agree to a deal with ONE FC, sources close to the situation confirmed with MMAFighting.com.
BloodyElbow.com reported on Tuesday that the deal was done according to their sources, however, MMAFighting.com has learned Askren has yet to officially sign the contract. That is expected to be done very shortly.
The deal Askren has verbally agreed to is an exclusive, two-year six-fight contract. ONE FC is expected to formally announce arguably their biggest acquisition in the coming days, however, Askren will not attend ONE FC 13 this Friday in the Philippines. His debut fight and date have yet to be finalized.
Askren was not available to comment on the pending deal.
WSOF executive vice president Ali Abdel-Aziz confirmed with MMAFighting.com that Askren turned down their offer.
“He chose to go somewhere else,” Abdel-Aziz said. “[ONE FC] are great guys and they are going to take care of him. I wish him the best of luck.”
Askren tweeted Sunday that while he will be starting his fight camps at Roufusport in Milwaukee, WI, he will end them at the Singapore-based Evolve MMA, which has close ties to ONE FC. That news sparked rumors that Askren was close to signing with ONE FC.
When contacted by MMAFighting.com about these rumors Sunday night, ONE FC president Victor Cui said, “We will have some huge news to announce in the next few days.”
That news appears to be that the 12-0 former Olympian is headed to Asia’s strongest promotion.