Media Ben Askren destroys Kelvin Gastelum on Twitter

[Meathead Jock]

No. I recognize Whittaker and Kelvin are the future and this could be the first of a trilogy of these young lions. Anderson vs Israel is a so-so supporting bout. These two youngsters wrecked Jacare, Vitor, Bisping, Tim Kennedy.

The last two PPVs I ordered: GSP vs Bisping, Jones vs Gus 2. I clearly don't order every PPV.

Kelvin is a good fighter, but I hardly see anything to make me think he is "the future". Whittaker proved himself with the Yoel wars though.

 

[dipstickjimmy]

I have never stated askren was blameless in not being officially signed. The bulk of it sits with the UFC. They offered and retracted a contract no doubt due to whites influence. Did he piss Dana off by calling him on bullshit around drug testing? Yes. Was dana full of shit on his position? Yes which is why he had a vendetta towards askren .

Leading askren to believe he would get a contract if he got a release from bellator was pure UFC though. They could have easily said no when he first talked to fertita and later met him live and he would have stayed at bellator.

He wanted to be in the UFC, they said they wouldn't negotiate until he got a release which he did. Not sure how his intelligence plays into this scenario. He was presented with one option and then got fucked when he took them up on it

If you knew anything about askren you would know he's not a b.s. kind of guy. He was very upfront about pushing bellator for a release. Why go down that road unless you had been guaranteed a contract?

Woodley has commented on the situation a few times as well and supported askren's statements.

And the content I posted above included quite a bit outside jre . He mostly summarized it briefly. Keep in mind as well that Rogan offered to negotiate on askren's behalf with Dana to get him in the UFC. Odd thing to offer from a guy everyone seems to consider a UFC shill.

You asked for the story and I gave it to you with a timeline and comments from all parties and you still want to argue. I'm always surprised when anyone defends the UFC or their business practices even indirectly

Next time a thank you would be nice.

Thank you for the info provided. Askren isn't as shrewd as he claims if he let that happen. You are not guaranteed a contract if it isn't signed. You seem to see it pretty black and white (no pun intended) but taking what anyone says as a guarantee in business is foolish.

In my business there are literally no verbal contracts, it must be written. Clauses and contracts need to state Who will do What by When and at Whose expense. We can all agree verbally to all of that and until it is on paper agreed to by signatures of all parties it means nothing.

I don't think that summary you gave is the whole story and we will never know. At the end of the day Askren rubs me the wrong way and he seems to have a fan in you. The best thing is he is in the UFC now so we will get to hopefully see where he truly stands against the best of the best.

 

[IloveTHIS]

East win for Funky

 

[xhaydenx]

Whittaker did. I didn't say each of them did.

Gotcha. I had to look it up. Kelvin did win a decision.

 

[ReadWrite]

Ben talks with his mouth.
Kelvin talks with his fists.

 

[Dirge]

Thank you for the info provided. Askren isn't as shrewd as he claims if he let that happen. You are not guaranteed a contract if it isn't signed. You seem to see it pretty black and white (no pun intended) but taking what anyone says as a guarantee in business is foolish.

In my business there are literally no verbal contracts, it must be written. Clauses and contracts need to state Who will do What by When and at Whose expense. We can all agree verbally to all of that and until it is on paper agreed to by signatures of all parties it means nothing.

I don't think that summary you gave is the whole story and we will never know. At the end of the day Askren rubs me the wrong way and he seems to have a fan in you. The best thing is he is in the UFC now so we will get to hopefully see where he truly stands against the best of the best.

I'm a fan of guys that fight. It looks like he got a raw deal but you are right ultimately even he doesn't know and freely admits it. On jre he stated flat out that he has never had a one on one conversation with Dana white. He has never stated in any way that White and Co. directly blacklisted him but the circumstances are pretty fishy.

And I agree, written contracts are the way to go. Mind you, in the fight game there are all kinds of back room deals made so perhaps in this industry its more common. Backstage bonuses are a great example of that; ie extra pay for performance not outlined in a contract.

The summary I provided is basically Ben's story plus all the external content that aligns to it.

The thing is, the UFC has a pattern for acquiring talent. If you look at Alvarez, the UFC definitely wanted him from Bellator and Alvarez took Bellator to court (And ultimately lost and had to fight out his contract). Askren was the undefeated Bellator champ and a former olympian. He was also coming off two high profile finishes in his last two fights during his Bellator tenure. He was a hot commodity especially given how big the UFC 170 division was back in 2012 and 2013.

GSP left the UFC in November of 2013, same month Askren became a free agent and it left a huge void in the UFC WW division. What better time to bring in the former Bellator WW champ?

 

[Cooliox]

Ben Askren has been fighting on Twitter for a very long time. I'm glad that he's finally going to compete in top level sanctioned mma.

So far he's got 1 top10 win in his career, which makes him good... But he keeps talking like he's great.

Glad that he'll finally be tested.

 

[grihenrumet]

Kelvin is worried, if he gets that belt from Whittaker, Tyrone might just come up and take it from him.....iI'm

Ever way Tyrone is waiting to see how Whittaker handles Kelvin, before he decides to move up.

I'm sure he's trembling worrying about Tyrone ,but don't know he gets past rob