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Dana White Defends Decision To Sign Ben Askren In Swap Deal With Demetrious Johnson

Dana White Defends Decision To Sign Ben Askren In Swap Deal With Demetrious Johnson

The UFC president has reacted to Askren's second straight Octagon defeat.

Nasir Jabbar

Nasir Jabbar

Dana White claims Ben Askren was an "amazing trade" in response to his devastating submission defeat to Demian Maia at UFC Singapore.

Askren was submitted by the Brazilian in the third round of their main-event bout in Asia on Saturday to condemn the American welterweight to back-to-back defeats.

Naturally, his second straight loss became the talking point of the online MMA community and a fan branded the deal between Askren and Demetrious Johnson as the "first and worst trade in MMA history".

However, another social media user leaped to the defence of the trade.

"They got the fastest KO in UFC history and a super fight between Masvidal and Diaz out of it. UFC 244 will make more money than 3 Mighty Mouse PPV cards put together. Seems like the trade worked out spectacularly," a message read in response to the original post.

The UFC president then weighed in on the trade: "U sir are the only guy in this thread with a brain. Ben was an amazing trade!!!"

Image: via Reddit/Instagram
Image: via Reddit/Instagram

Askren, meanwhile, is not clear where he goes from here: "I don't know," said the 35-year-old on his future. "I need to go home and sit down and think about a lot of things. I've had a busy year, it was fantastic.

"Even coming into this fight, I'm thinking who am I going to all out and I look at the division and everybody's busy, the call-out tonight was going to be hard because there's no one that makes a whole lot of sense right away 'I'll probably just sit and wait for a second and see what happens.'"

Image: PA
Image: PA

The ex-Bellator champion is 1-2 since signing for the UFC. He's now on a two-fight losing streak following his five-second KO to Jorge Masvidal at UFC 239 back in July.

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Topics:ย Ben Askren, UFC News, Fight News, UFC, MMA, Dana White

Nasir Jabbar is a journalist at SPORTbible. He graduated from Bath Spa University with a BA in Media Communications. He's a combat sport aficionado, and has contributed to MMA websites AddictedMMA and CagePotato. Nasir has covered some of the biggest fights, while interviewing the likes of Conor McGregor, Darren Till, Tyson Fury and Anthony Joshua. He's also an avid Bristol City fan.

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