Ben Askren had to know that his active Twitter fingers would be anticipated after the KO of his nemesis Jorge Masvidal, so he went ahead and put them to use.
By now, if you are not familiar with Jorge Masvidal’s UFC 239 KO of Ben Askren, then first, let me welcome you to life as an MMA fan. You’re gonna love it. Second, be sure to keep MMANews.com as your go-to source for all the latest news and updates on this newfound interest of yours. Third, go watch that KO STAT. Because it is arguably the most famous KO in the history of the UFC and perhaps even all of combat sports.
Until now, Ben Askren really didn’t have any material to hit Masvidal back with after there had been so much trash talk between the two prior to this fight. After getting KOed in such grand fashion, what was there left to say? Askren was on the wrong end of the fastest KO of all time, so he was pretty much at the mercy of his trolls and of Masvidal, similar to his current position after being KOed by former Disney Channel actor and YouTuber Jake Paul.
At UFC 261 last night, though, Masvidal seemed to finally get his comeuppance, getting KOed by Kamaru Usman of all people, someone Masvidal completely dismissed as a threat on the feet. Despite Askren having an opening to rub salt in the wounds of his nemesis, he seemed to go another, more upstanding route in his post-fight tweet about the fight’s outcome:
“I don’t believe in Karma. If you fight long enough shit happens,” Askren wrote.
Another reason this could be viewed as “Funky” taking the high road is how much these remarks differ from Masvidal’s comments regarding Askren’s KO loss to Paul. Masvidal gave the ol’ “I told you so” after stating prior to the fight that Askren did not represent MMA and arguing that he had disrespected the sport throughout his entire career. Despite their history, Askren chose to keep it classy here by acknowledging that, eventually, everybody is victimized at some point in this crazy sport of ours.
What do you make of Ben Askren’s comments? Do you have a different interpretation and think Askren was trying to convey anything different than a classy non-statement about Masvidal’s loss?
