UFC 239 wasn’t particularly a good night for Ben Askren.
Leading up to the fight against Jorge Masvidal, both fighters traded jabs back-and-forth on social media, thus leading up to the bout against the two welterweights. The former ONE Championship fighter didn’t view “Gamebred” as a threat going into the bout at first, as Askren stated that he wasn’t “impressed” with Masdival during his bout against Darren Till when speaking to
MMA Fighting.
However, UFC 239 came and once the bell rang, Jorge connected with a quick flying knee and several punches to secure the victory over the previously undefeated fighter. Askren spoke on Ariel Helwani's MMA Show about his loss at UFC 239, and doesn’t make any excuses for his loss to Jorge Masvidal (transcript courtesy to
Fightful.com)
“I got nothing to hide from, Obviously, mistakes happen, losses happen. Saturday night was definitely not ideal for (me). I got nothing to complain about.”
Askren speaks about the realization of losing his first match-up in mixed martial arts:
“Saturday night was least traumatizing for me,” Askren said. “There’s a little part of my memory that’s blank there. I remember being in the cage with him. I don’t really remember the flying knee. Then, when I can recall, I remember everything. Like, ‘Oh (expletive), I lost to Jorge Masvidal. This freaking sucks.’ Everyone else is more worried about me than I’m worried about myself. I didn’t really have any pain of any sort. Not a headache. Nothing on my face hurts. So it was just like, ‘Oh, Jesus. I lost to Jorge Masvidal. How did I lose to him? How fast was it?’ I could tell it was pretty fast because I wasn’t sweaty or sore or anything. I knew it was fast. I didn’t know exactly how fast it was. Apparently, I set a record of some sort.”
Feel Free to check out the full interview below: