King of the lightweights? Maybe king of the trolls.
That’s Ben Askren’s reaction to Nate Diaz’s recent interview with ESPN’s Ariel Helwani on Monday afternoon. The former lightweight fighter explained his move to welterweight by saying “I already did everything, beat everybody. Feel like I’m the king of that division, so I’m going to leave that where it’s at.”
That confused fellow welterweight Ben Askren, who took to Twitter with a response.
I think @NateDiaz209 may be a better troll than @stephenasmith his record at LW is 7-6 https://t.co/neSuO9kZp0
— Ben Askren (@Benaskren) June 3, 2019
”I think Nate Diaz may be a better troll than Stephen A Smith, his record at LW is 7-6,” he wrote.
With Diaz apparently sticking around at welterweight and no longer willing to sit on the sidelines any more, there’s a chance the two could fight at some future time. But first Ben Askren will have to deal with Jorge Masvidal at UFC 239 on July 6th. And then Nate has Anthony Pettis at UFC 241 on August 17th.
Them’s some pretty great welterweight fights to begin with, even if Askren and Diaz never meet in the Octagon. But given Ben’s wrestling and Diaz’s jiu jitsu, it would be an interesting one for sure, and that’s before taking in all the smacktalk that’d undoubtedly get tossed around in the lead up.