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<\/p>\n <\/p>\n
This collage of photos shows former UFC star Ben Askren (left) and Kamaru Usman. \u2014 Reuters\/X<\/p>\n
Former UFC star Ben Askren believes Kamaru Usman does not deserve a title shot against the welterweight champion, Islam Makhachev, saying, \u201cI think Ian Machado Garry has earned it\u201d.<\/p>\n
Islam has become the two-division champion after dominating Jack Della Maddalena during a unanimous decision victory at UFC 322 on November 15 at Madison Square Garden in New York.<\/p>\n
Immediately after his welterweight victory, Makhachev named Usman as his preferred option for his first title defence.<\/p>\n
However, Askren believes that chances should be given to young fighters in the UFC who have earned it.<\/p>\n
\u201dI know I\u2019ve had issues with him, so I don\u2019t want to sound biased,\u201d Askren said of Usman.<\/p>\n
\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
He further added that the young welterweight fighters have done enough and deserve title shots.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe welterweight belt has changed hands a whole bunch of times,\u201d Ben added. <\/p>\n
\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
Ben also commented on Paddy Pimblett, who will fight Justin Gaethje for an interim lightweight title, as Ilia Topuria has taken a break from the UFC due to personal reasons, saying he doesn\u2019t deserve a title shot.<\/p>\n
He further added that he is not a big fan of Ian Machado Garry, but the guy has earned a title shot.<\/p>\n
\u201cI know the \u2018favorites\u2019 card gets played sometimes in MMA and with Dana,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n
\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","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"This collage of photos shows former UFC star Ben Askren (left) and Kamaru Usman. \u2014 Reuters\/X Former UFC…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":366683,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[444],"tags":[14466,24452,49,48,641,9463,35894,638,82,640,157137],"class_list":["post-366682","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-mma","tag-askren","tag-ben-askren","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-fighting","tag-islam","tag-kamaru-usman","tag-mma","tag-sports","tag-ufc","tag-usman"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/366682","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=366682"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/366682\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/366683"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=366682"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=366682"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=366682"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}