Ben Askren’s rivalry with Johny Hendricks runs as deep as any college sports rivalry worth its salt. In this case, Askren wore the singlet of the University of Missouri, while Hendricks wrestled for Oklahoma State.
And while it’s clear the two aren’t going to tangle in the cage any time soon, given that Hendricks is the UFC welterweight champion and Askren is his OneFC counterpart, it’s just as clear that Askren, one of MMA’s king Twitter trolls, isn’t going to stop hectoring Hendricks any time soon.
On Tuesday’s edition of The MMA Hour, Askren was asked how the Hendricks hate originated. The fighter known as “Funky” relayed a wrestling story that involved his Missouri teammate and current UFC welterweight contender Tyron Woodley.
“It’s hard to describe in full effect unless you’ve been around the wrestling community a long time,” Askren said. “He has won so many matches lucky through college. … He was wrestling my teammate Tyron Woodley in the Big 12 finals, 2005-06, somewhere around there, and [the score] was 1-1 in the third. Tyron’s in on a shot, and Johny kept sticking his fingers into Tyron’s mouth. So finally Tyron bites him, which he shouldn’t have done, but when someone’s sticking fingers in your mouth, it’s like, c’mon, so he gave up a point because he bit him, land he lost match 2-1. And it’s like c’mon, is that really how you’re going to lose the Big 12 finals? He was just doing sneaky s– like that all the time.”
Askren likewise claimed Hendricks ducked him at an All-Star collegiate wrestling meet. According to Askren, he was willing to go down in weight class to meet Hendricks on the mat.
“The people at the All-Star Classic said you can’t do that because you’re not the same weight class,” Askren said. “I said I don’t care, I’ll make the sacrifice, I’ll go down in weight. I want to beat this dude bad. They never did make it happen. A couple years down the road I heard it was because he turned the match down personally. I can’t confirm or deny that face.”
Most recently, Askren attempted to goad Hendricks in Las Vegas, when the two were seated nearby at The Ultimate Fighter 19 Finale.
“I stopped him, I said Johny, go tell Dana [White] we need to fight,” Askren said. “He was response was ‘Dana who?’ At this point I’m so dumbfounded he said Dana who, I’m like obviously you know who I’m talking about Johny, don’t be a dummy. I just started laughing, before I finished laughing, he walked off. That was our face to face right there, if he said I didn’t say anything to his face that’s a damn lie.”
One thing’s for sure: Knowing Askren, this isn’t the last we’ll hear of this.