Coach: Askren Being Used As Pawn Between Two Promotions

“I feel like at times [Askren]’s being used as a pawn from one promotion to the other, personally. I mean, if [Bellator] doesn’t want him, let him go. I would love to see that fight happen, for sure. But Georges is talking about retiring, for one. Two, in order to make a title fight at welterweight in the UFC, they need footage to promote Ben, which they don’t have.

“Bjorn’s got to know it’s a very hard asking for Dana, ‘let’s do this.’ Realistically you need footage and a contender fight. Where do we get the footage of Ben Askren in the background to promote this? Because Bellator owns this, and another TV company owns this. There’s a lot of things behind the scenes that just couldn’t happen. It’s weird, because [my] fighters are like my children. A week ago, Ben was down. He gets this told to him, he’s happier than a kid on Christmas.”

In an interview with MMAFighting.com, Duke Roufus discusses the current state of Ben Askren’s career under the Bellator banner.

Askren is undefeated and the reigning Bellator welterweight champion, but much like Eddie Alvarez he is stuck between two-promotions and wanting to go to the UFC.