{"id":366138,"date":"2025-12-24T15:09:09","date_gmt":"2025-12-24T15:09:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/366138\/"},"modified":"2025-12-24T15:09:09","modified_gmt":"2025-12-24T15:09:09","slug":"askren-not-interested-in-usman-title-shot-i-think-garry-has-earned-it","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/366138\/","title":{"rendered":"Askren not interested in Usman title shot: \u2018I think Garry has earned it\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"

Should former welterweight champion Kamaru Usman step into a title shot against current champ Islam Makhachev, despite having only fought once<\/a> in two years? No, according to former Bellator and ONE champion Ben Askren, who\u2019s miraculous recovery<\/a> after a double-lung transplant<\/a> is one of the feel good stories of 2025.<\/p>\n

Ben Askren is an old guard fighter, so you might think he\u2019d have a soft spot for a legacy guy like Usman getting one more kick at the championship can before riding off into the sunset. But instead, \u201cFunky\u201d wants to see the next generation of welterweights get their chance.<\/p>\n

\u201dI know I\u2019ve had issues<\/a> with him, so I don\u2019t want to sound biased,\u201d Askren said of Usman in an interview with Helen Yee. \u201cHe obviously was a champion for a long time, but it\u2019s been a a little bit, and he\u2019s had a few losses more recently.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThe welterweight belt has changed hands a whole bunch of times,\u201d Ben added. \u201cHe lost to Leon. Leon lost to Belal. Belal lost to Jack Della Maddalena. JDM lost to [Makhachev] so it\u2019s not like he lost to the last guy, and now he\u2019s getting a rematch or something. So I feel like the newer guys at welterweight have done enough to justify title shots for themselves.\u201d<\/p>\n

Usman was a familiar name in the UFC through the pandemic,<\/a> and we would not be surprised if the promotion tries to cash in on that name value as they try to put on big shows for their new broadcast partner Paramount+. But \u201cFunky\u201d is a hard work appreciator, and he\u2019d rather see the guys actually competing<\/a> get their due rather than Usman, who is 1-3 over the past three years.<\/p>\n

\u201cI know the \u2018favorites\u2019 card gets played sometimes in MMA and with Dana,\u201d he said. \u201cYou know, Paddy gets the title shot, and maybe he doesn\u2019t totally deserve it. I like to see when the guys earn it. And I don\u2019t love Ian Garry, but I really think he has earned it. So it\u2019ll be interesting to see how those younger guys do in the next couple years.\u201d<\/p>\n

Whatever happens at welterweight isn\u2019t likely to happen before April, as the UFC is booked up solid until March when Ramadan kicks in, and champs like Islam Makhachev and Khamzat Chimaev shut down their camps.<\/a> Who do you want to see compete against Makhachev next, Maniacs? Let us know in the comments below!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Should former welterweight champion Kamaru Usman step into a title shot against current champ Islam Makhachev, despite having…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":366139,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[444],"tags":[49,48,641,638,82,702],"class_list":{"0":"post-366138","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-mma","8":"tag-ca","9":"tag-canada","10":"tag-fighting","11":"tag-mma","12":"tag-sports","13":"tag-ufc-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/366138","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=366138"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/366138\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/366139"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=366138"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=366138"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=366138"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}