Bjorn Rebney announced via twitter that Bellator has released Ben Askren from his contract and has relinquished its right to match in Askren’s contract. Askren is now an “unrestricted free agent.”
MMA Fighting reports Rebney had discussions with Askren before the decision was made. Askren leaves as the Bellator welterweight champion undefeated in Bellator and an overall 12-0 record.
The decision to not pursue one of its champion’s allows him to sign with any other organization with the UFC being the primary target.
Payout Perspective:
Good decision by Bellator? How does Bellator’s decision not to match any offers affect a potential deal with the UFC? Askren is a dominant wrestler but the only drawback is that his style is not appealing to those watching. For Bellator, it avoids another Eddie Alvarez situation. However, Alvarez’s style is more fan friendly than Asken. Thus, more of a commodity for Bellator. Also, its not clear how interested the UFC is in Askren. Its not clamoring to go after Askren although it is likely to enter into negotiations.
Probably a good move considering the Alvarez fiasco, but it also doesn’t send a good message to their talent about the organization being a stepping stone to the UFC, as well as a tacit admission of the ceiling that exists for dominant fighters in Bellator.
I think the UFC is interested and I think Ben knows this.
The UFC refused to even talk to his reps until he was a free agent. In both of the previous dealings with Bellator fighters, the UFC offers were made public by Bjorn. Personally, I find it funny that a company that is even more private than the UFC is so open when it comes to other company’s contracts. The UFC decided they did not want to get involved in another public bidding war.
When the UFC made that decision, Ben decided to wait. But with him goes the Bellator WW title. So if he sat out for another 8 months, so does the title in one of their higher profile weight classes. They have two contenders lined up (Well, one and the finals of another tourny coming up), how many more are they willing to stack?
There really wasn’t a good decision to be made here. They put theirself in a bad situation when they opened their mount a while back. A good decision for Bellator would have been to have talks with Ben then come out and say they cant agree to terms and they wish him the best in the future. Rather than play the games they did and disrespect him. They through him under the bus and he didn’t do anything to them.
How they send a very bad message to anyone who ever fights for them. They are treating their fighters bad, even their champs. Even if they claim their treatment of Askren was do to him being boring. Then that doesn’t explain their treatment of Vegh, their 205 champ.
Now what does this do to the credibility of their belts? I am a strong believer that the fighters realy don’t matter much. History has shown that fans jump on board of anyone a promotion claims is the champ. Every promotion ever to get any attention had their champ way over hyped. It didn’t matter who it was. There is a segment of the mma fanbase that promotes anything non UFC. So whoever is the BFC 170 champ will do fine. BUt it may take 2 years before people stop using Askren to discredit them. Losing a champ isn’t a killer. But it doesn’t take a couple years for a few different champs before things are back to normal. But there will be some who will always look down on that belt for ever because the way BFC has acted. The actions of BFC has sent the message the belt is worthless because they have done things to show they are doing their best to hand pick who has the belt. It isn’t the best man wins at BFC. They tried to crown King Mo so bad they stripped Vegh of some of his belts credibility to create a unneeded interim title. Then rushed the rematch so they can make Mo interim champ and give him a title shot. It backfired! Then they didn’t like Askren and in the blink of an eye said ” we want someone else to have that belt” and refused to resign him.
So now the question is. Who has the belts? IS it their best fighter? Or just someone they handed the belt after manipulating match ups? If they will cut a top ranked fighter like this. That what top fighters are they not even signing or giving the time of day? They are not running a fighting competition. It is a popularity contest. By not even wanting to sign Askren they told everything their champ is just who they hand picked to have the belt. Actually competition is meaningless to them.
bokamotoESPN: Dana White says he’s not interested in Ben Askren right now: He’s got work to do.
JoshGrossESPN Re: @Benaskren, @AliAbdelaziz00 says @MMAWorldSeries is interested.
Well played by Dana! Signing Askren would be playing right into Bellators hands. Giving them a horse in the UFC that they would bring up when ever convent. Dana would have pressure to give him a title shot which is what BFC wants. With his record. It would be hard to deny him for more than a fight or two.
But if he has to go fight some where else before signing with the UFC. Then the UFC isn’t signing a BFC fighter. Time passes and people don’t consider him BFC. Also BFC releasing Ben comes off as suspect. It seems they are up to something. Maybe they did so to get a title fight with GSP? By not signing him it make the black eye BFC took because of it. We it will be interesting if BFC scrambles to get him back that their plan failed?
I don’t see a conspiracy here. Askren is the worst of both worlds for an MMA promotion – dominant and boring. He’s never been a draw, and both Rebney and White know this. White just got rid of Fitch, why would he want to sign another one? Askren will land somewhere, but he’ll always struggle to pull viewers with his fighting style.
I disagree. He signed Fitch multiple times over his career. He only released him when he started to decline. Far ry from a Fitch style who is unbeaten on his way up.
History has shown me that the UFC would typically sign a guy like Askren and throw the kitchen sink at him and get him beat before ever getting a title shot. But because the attention on Askren and Rebney running his mouth. It changes things a lot. Because of Askrens hype and attention on him and record. They cant justify making him fight 3 times befor a title shot. Giving Rebney a chance to say “I told you so” by giving him a title shot. Is not going to happen. Dana hates Spike and Rebney to much to risk them getting one over on him.
So I think the UFC will pass on him until he either loses, declines, or Bellator goes under or at least is on the ropes.
Askren is in my top three favorite fighters, with Jon Jones and Anderson Silva. Never considered him boring at all, though I don’t like grinders. Is it a funky style? Over-aweing skills? Our funky hair? Let him live or die by the sword, Dana.