Bellator MMA has made some very puzzling decisions over the recent weeks and months, but none are more perplexing to me then the promotion letting their undefeated welterweight champion Ben Askren head to the UFC without a fight.
Bellator CEO and president Bjorn Rebney spoke to ESPN.com’s Josh Gross recently about whether or not his organization intended to keep Askren – who is a restricted free agent – in the fold, and he point-blank said, “I don’t think we’re going to make an offer at this point.”
I sat there scratching my head as I read this because, for the life of me, I honestly can’t understand why they wouldn’t make him an offer. After all, he is one of Bellator’s few universally-ranked fighters, and he is a guy the promotion scouted, developed, and turned into a world champion. And now they are willing to let him go with nothing in return?
Basically, Bellator right now has an exclusive negotiating period with Askren, but they can waive it if they choose, just like they did in the cases of Eddie Alvarez and Hector Lombard. If they waive it, and Rebney said this is likely, Askren will be able to get an offer from any other organization, including the UFC, and Bellator will then have the right to match it.
But unlike Alvarez, whose contract Bellator matched, and Lombard, who would have been kept around too, had the UFC not given him an outrageous sum of money that even they are regretting right now, it really doesn’t seem like Rebney has any interest at all in retaining Askren. This is because of his wrestling-heavy style, a style that generally does not cater to the casual MMA fan’s appetite.
“If the UFC does make an offer, we’ll take a look at it and move on from there,” Rebney told ESPN. “We haven’t been proactive yet. I have nothing but good things to say about Ben as a fighter, but we’re all very aware of how he fights and what he does. It’s not for everyone.”
Well, his style may not be for everyone, but it wins fights, and since he has started turning up the heat in his most recent two outings, two brutal TKO wins, many observers, including myself, feel like he’s evolved past his lay and pray days and he’s ready to contend for the world title against UFC welterweight champion Georges St-Pierre. Rebney also said the same thing, telling Gross, “I’d love to see Ben vs. GSP,” even though GSP doesn’t fight in Bellator and never will.
You know, there’s definitely a chance this could all be posturing on Bellator’s part to either a) get the UFC to offer him a huge contract that could come back to haunt them like Lombard, or b) get the UFC to lowball him because they don’t think Bellator is interested, and then match the deal. In either scenario, though, I pray that Bellator handles this situation in a much more civil manner than their public negotiations with Alvarez.
I used to despise watching Askren fight, but he has grown on me over time, and I recognize that he’s the most dominant wrestler in the sport aside from GSP, who is also regarded as a boring fighter by many. But guess what? GSP is the biggest PPV draw in the sport because, at the end of the day, the fans support winners, and there is no bigger winner in the sport than St-Pierre.
Askren is also a winner, and with his heel personality he could be the next Chael Sonnen. But it appears as though Bellator doesn’t care to find out, and it’s yet another decision that shows the organization is going backwards instead of forward, a decision that defines why the organization will never be #1 in the world.
Whatever the reasons are, letting Askren go without a fight is a bad call, and Bellator will end up regretting it if this happens.
