Jorge Masvidal Says Ben Askren Doesn’t Represent the MMA World Ahead Of Jake Paul Fight

Retired MMA star Ben Askren will be competing against YouTube personality Jake Paul in a professional boxing match and Askren’s reputation is certainly at stake. Now it seems a ghost from Askren’s past has come back to haunt him in a way.

While being interviewed by ESPN’s Ariel Helwani, Jorge Masvidal took multiple shots at Ben Askren by stating that he doesn’t represent the world of MMA and also criticized Askren’s lack of striking ability.

“He’s not a representation of our sport, my beautiful sport. He used to diss the sport when you used to ask him in interviews like, ‘Why don’t you ever strike? Oh, I could wrestle these guys’. I love wrestling, I’m a huge wrestling fan but you have to show respect. You have to know this is MMA, you have to strike, you have to show jiu-jitsu, you have to do wrestling,”

Jorge Masvidal further questioned Askren representing MMA in his boxing match against Jake Paul. Masvidal stated that the only reason Askren is fighting Paul is due to Masvidal embarrassing Askren so much already.

“So now this guy’s supposed to represent what? Our community or something in Boxing? Hell no. Who the hell gave this guy approval? The only reason why he’s doing that is because I embarrassed him so much and made him so famous for getting knocked out, somebody else wants to do the same thing to the guy. But I just wanna make this clear for anybody that thinks, he is not a representation of MMA in any way,” 

The match between the two will take place on April 17 at the Mercedes Benz Stadium in Atlanta, Georgia. Ben Askren can’t afford to lose the match as Daniel Cormier will certainly be ticked off if he does.