ESPN reported Wednesday that Ben Askren would be ‘traded’ from ONE Championship to the UFC for Demetrious Johnson. The former Bellator and ONE welterweight king will likely be headed to the UFC while the former UFC flyweight and pound-for-pound great Demetrious Johnson will take his talents to Asia. Why is this deal happening? Here’s my theory.
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2018-10-24
Its great One has the best guys in DJs division and the Asian mma fans love the little guys and finally Ben can fight the best at welterweights! One sells out arenas in asia every time! If you like mma check out one its great
wait what it actually just fucking happened?
Sorry, but DJ doesn't want to test himself or take exciting fights. He just wants to run up and down the flyweight division. One of the GOATs for sure, but I'll happily take Askren in the UFC as a trade for DJ, thangvermuch.
Askren isn't a big name either. Casuals will complain about his style.
Make Khabib vs Askren please.
Luke, would it not make sense to move Welterweight to 175 if they brought in a 165? All divisions would be equal then apart from Heavy and LH and 5 pound weight difference is eliminated
Josh Thompson said yesterday that fighter trading would be happening… The guy clearly knew more than he was letting on.
PPV is dying off. People don’t want to pay $60 for a night of fights. I can’t blame them.
Ufc just wants Ben for Khabib. Plus I believe DJ will make a ton more money there. Ben can make 155lbs. I'm not saying it'll be easy but I believe it's possible and that's where the UFC is turning their attention to.
Frankly, DJ shouldn't have screwed around with the TJ fight. Asking for a million for fights when you don't really pull viewers to your fights probably wasn't a good idea either. Brilliant fighter, just too small and too boring outside of the cage to actually interest casual fans. The UFC was always gonna be pissed with him when their record holder for title defenses was unable to actually captivate the audience. Even after the Cejudo fight, the "best to ever do it" just faded into the background, didn't demand a rematch, didn't make his voice heard, just went away.