Ben Askren is easily one of the most outspoken fighters on social media and perhaps even one of the most active athletes in all of sports when it comes to Twitter activity. And recently, the subject who has perhaps received the most of Ben Askren’s attention is none other than reigning welterweight champion Kamaru Usman. In a reversal of roles, Kamaru Usman trolled Ben Askren after Askren was shutout in a wrestling match against Olympic wrestler Justin Burroughs, yet Usman insists that he has no personal animosity against Askren. So if a personal vendetta didn’t spur Usman’s tweet, what did? Kamaru Usman explained why he took the time to criticize Askren following the shutout loss:
“I made the joke because just like that, Ben came in…Ben was doing his own thing on the other part of the world, and Ben came in thinking, ‘Oh, I’m the best at everything. I’m the best at wrestling. I’m the best at this, the best at that.’ So that was just to let him know that, hey, no you’re not. Relax,” Usman said in a media scrum.
Kamaru Usman also believes that same lesson can be applied to mixed martial arts, where he, as the reigning welterweight champion, would be the MMA equivalent to what Justin Burroughs was to Askren in the wrestling realm:
“When you go into wrestling, there’s a guy that’s the best there,” Usman said. “And he went in there, and he felt that. Now you want to come into the UFC, there’s a guy that’s the best there, too. And that’s me.
“So when that time comes and I get the opportunity to show him that, I will gladly do it. And so that’s all that meant. I don’t really care what he’s doing. Of course it was interesting. I like that. So I watched it, and I saw what the best did to him there. It’s gonna be a lot different when the best here gets a hold of him.”
Do you agree with Kamaru Usman? Should Ben Askren should have learned a lesson in humility after his loss to Justin Burroughs in a wresting match?
