‘Funky’ Has Been a Revelation Since He Arrived in the UFC… His Trash Talk is Hilarious And Now Ben Askren Has Turned His Ire Towards Nate Diaz…
Ben Askren is already stoking the fire. He’s set to fight Jorge Masvidal this weekend in New York as part of the UFC’s International Fight Week, but is Nate Diaz waiting for him on the horizon? Askren has been a breath of fresh air since signing for the UFC. His trash talk is hilarious and he says whatever is on his mind when he wants.
The former Bellator and ONE Championship welterweight champion had a baptism of fire when he finally made his UFC debut. He was slammed on his head by Robbie Lawlor and almost finished off. He came back to controversially submit the former champion, with Lawlor protesting that the stoppage was early.
Now Askren has targeted the one-and-only Nate Diaz. He basically called the Stockton fighter delusional and said that Anthony Pettis is going to take his soul. Read on to find out what ‘Funky’ said.
Unintelligent
Askren acknowledges that Diaz is good at self-promotion. Both of the Stockton brothers – Nick and Nate – have established a loyal following. They keep it real and put it all out there in the cage when they fight. But Askren still thinks that the younger Diaz is more than a bit dumb.
“For what it’s worth, he does a great job making people interested in him. It’s a funny thing because to me he comes off as fairly unintelligent and he says some crazy sh-t,” Askren told MMA Fighting. “Like where he said he’s the king of lightweights. It’s kind of funny. In a little demented way, he believes it even though there’s no way it’s close to actually being true.
“In the same way that a lot of people do, I find it entertaining and in another way it’s like holy sh-t this guy is out of his damn mind. He is not a threat in the slightest bit to the welterweight division,” he added. “I think we’re getting down to the point where he’s just delusional.”
Terrible
‘Funky’ also has no respect for Diaz’s ability as a welterweight. He observed that his only win at 170lbs was against Conor McGregor – a man whose best UFC days were in the featherweight division. Because of this, Askren thinks Diaz’s next opponent, Anthony Pettis will win easily. He said:
“When it gets down to it, I know Nate Diaz said he’s not a 155 pounder anymore or whatever bullsh-t he says but at the end of the day, Nate Diaz is 1-3 at 170. Nate Diaz is a terrible 170-pounder and that’s all there is to it. Anthony versus Nate is going to be fun. I think Anthony is going to kick Nate’s ass and I don’t know that will really affect me that much.”
Smart Move
Now what could cause Askren to go after Diaz so hard? Well, we know that he doesn’t care about making friends so really it’s a bit of smart promotion from the former Olympian. A fight with Diaz would be high-profile and probably sell a lot of pay-per-views. Askren would also fancy his chances against the Stockton fighter.
If it doesn’t, well it’s got his name out there hasn’t it?
