Askren Claims He Will Break GSP

Georges St-Pierre believes that Ben Askren is one of the “best welterweights in the world,” and that a fight between the two at GSP’s peak would have been great for his legacy.

Askren would love the opportunity. So much so, that Askren would only come out of his self-imposed retirement to face the former UFC welterweight and middleweight champion.

Yet, St-Pierre claims that the “stock” in Askren is low due to never fighting in the UFC, and “nobody knows who [Askren] is.”

Askren doesn’t believe that for a moment.

“He says, ‘Well I would fight Ben Askren, he’s definitely a top-three welterweight in the world, but not enough people know him,’ which essentially means, ‘We’re not going to sell enough pay-per-views, I’m not going to make enough money.’ But at this point in your life, are you caring about your legacy — which you just said in the last sentence — or are you caring about your pocketbook, which is what you’re referencing now?” Askren said on a recent edition of the MMA Hour.

“If he says, ‘Hey, I just want to make money,’ I don’t blame him for that. That’s fine. He wants to make money. But don’t say you care about your legacy and then you care about your pocketbook more later. It’s one or the other. Just pick one. And frankly … the UFC, what they struggle to do is market someone who’s not just a ‘stand and bang’ guy… The UFC marketing machine there is set up for one thing. The one thing is to market the ‘stand and bang’ fighters, and they fail to have any recognition of how to market someone who doesn’t fit in that little profile. So for me versus GSP, I think if you learn how to market me the right way — I’m undefeated, I’m an Olympian, I’m a damn American hero.”

Askren already has thought out how he would beat St-Pierre, and claims that he would break down the Canadian.

“…And in the fifth round, he mentally breaks and he says, ‘I can’t do this anymore, I’ve never been in this position in my life,’ and he let’s me finish him.

“TKO. He just says, ‘I’m done with this sh*t.’”

Original Story: MMA Fighting