Photo by Alexandre Schneider /Zuffa LLC/Zuffa LLC
“He got three UFC fights! He got the luckiest draw with Robbie Lawler ever in his life!”
It came as a shock to many when Ben Askren (19-2 MMA, 1-2 UFC, 1 NC) announced his retirement last month, but his fellow fighters had nothing but good things to say about ‘Funky’ despite his rather short-lived and underwhelming stint in the UFC.
Former UFC middleweight champ Chris Weidman labelled Askren a huge inspiration throughout his MMA career, but Mike ‘Platinum’ Perry couldn’t disagree more.
Speaking on a recent edition of UFC Unfiltered, Perry called Askren a ‘bum’ and said the former ONE FC and Bellator welterweight champion got lucky against Robbie Lawler in his UFC debut. Askren won the bout via submission, but ‘Ruthless’ didn’t tap out.
“Ben Askren’s a bum, and they’re only talking about his retirement!” Perry said on UFC Unfiltered (via MMA News). “And he never fought nobody! He got three UFC fights! He got the luckiest draw with Robbie Lawler ever in his life! 18-0 in other organizations and all that…I skipped all that! I saw Mike Bisping’s picture the other day, his Cage Warriors title defense, I said, ‘what’d you get for that? $5,000?’ They wasn’t paying sh*t back in the day.
“I skipped all that. I went straight to the UFC money.”
Following the Lawler fight, Askren suffered a five-second KO loss to Jorge Masvidal at UFC 239 and was submitted by Demian Maia in the UFC Fight Night 162 main event.
Perry (13-5 MMA, 6-5 UFC) last fought at UFC Fight Night 156, where he dropped a split decision to Vincent Luque and suffered one of the worst injuries in UFC history. The welterweight fan favorite is expected to be out of action for the foreseeable future.