Ben Askren blasts Dana White: ‘He doesn’t care about his athletes’

B. Askren (center) with the ONE FC belt. Photo: Reproduction/Facebook

After much resistance, UFC president Dana White has finally opened the organization's doors to former Bellator champion and current ONE FC welterweight belt holder Ben Askren in the future. However, practically following White's positive statement, the fighter decided to speak out against the manager. According to Askren, Dana doesn't care about the athletes he manages and cited the example of UFC 177 to justify his criticisms.

“Last weekend, the Baron, did he make a mistake? Yes, he messed up. He made a big mistake. He probably shouldn't be in the 61,2kg division. But the way Dana threw him in front of the bus like he was a piece of trash… Where's a bit of human decency there? I think we saw this time and time again with Dana. So, I think that in the end he cares too much about his pocket and doesn't care enough about his athletes”, said the athlete, in an interview with the podcast “The MMA Hour”.

Despite the harsh words, Askren was open to trying to resolve the impasse with White soon, if the president also shows interest. “I’m not going to lower myself. I'm not going to suck up. I think he started the personal attacks before I did. If he wanted to meet face to face and talk, we could end this feud. I would be open to that,” he revealed.

At 30 years old, Ben Askren has a professional record of 14 wins and no losses. After leaving Bellator as the organization's welterweight champion, the American offered to go to the UFC for free, under the condition of challenging the Canadian. Georges St Pierre. However, Askren and Ultimate never reached an agreement and he ended up moving to the ONE FC event. In his last fight, on August 29th, Ben overcame Nobutatsu Suzuki and won the title in the 77 kg category in the Asian organization.